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Mental and Physical 
Ease and Supremacy 



Being a Practical Adaptation of LEAV- 
ITT-SCIENCE to Individual Use 



-BY- 



Author of The Art of Healing, 
Leavitt-Science, Etc. 



14 W.WASHINGTON STREET 
CHICAGO. ILLINOIS 



& 



V 



A t>v 



Copyright 1914 

by 

C. Franklin Leavitt, M. D. 

Published Sept. 1914 



OCT 30 1914 

# I** 
CU388167 



PREFACE 

In adopting the letter form of treatment for the 
presentation of the important subject of self-help, 
I have thought to bring writer and reader into closer 
personal relationship, and thus reduce the subject- 
matter more easily to the level of the lowest compre- 
hension. 

The letters themselves deal mainly with facts 
rather than theories. Even in the warmth of ex- 
hortation I have aimed to keep well within the lines 
of demonstrable truth. 

The subject is one of tremendous importance. 
Humanity is waking to a consciousness that it is en- 
dued with power. The innate forces of the Ego are 
greater — far greater — than the ordinary conception 
of them. But energy has to be set into action 
along right lines, and it is astonishing to see how this 
is sometimes done. One may have no proper concep- 
tion of the power he has until, on some occasion, 
he runs across another soul in whom there is a glow 
of enthusiastic faith and achievement from whom 



lie takes on stimulation as by a happy contagion and 
is suddenly set going in the right direction. 

To many who take up this volume in a casual 
way the whole matter will seem puerile. Their per- 
ceptives are dulled by materialism, or their assimi- 
latives are not in trim for this kind of thing. To 
many others the book will come as a message from 
the skies. 

I have aimed to keep back no knowledge calculated 
to aid the seeker after health, and yet I am perfectly 
conscious that there are many who will find it impos- 
sible so to rally their strong forces as to overcome 
their physical disturbances without getting into closer 
relations with one who, by the power of his psychic 
energies, can bring them to a condition of mind in 
which they shall be able to control their own forces. 
On the other hand, there are many who will be able, 
under the guidance and inspiration of these letters, 
to rise to high levels of health and efficiency. I have 
aimed to make the way as clear and easy as possible. 

14 W. Washington St., Chicago. 
July 30, 1914. 



CONTENTS 

INTRODUCTION * 11 

The Question of Self-Healing 13 

Leavitt-Science Cures Other Than Imaginary 

Ailments 15 

Some Valuable Data 17 

Cures at a Distance 20 

LETTER I. A MORE DIRECT WORD 33 

Other Than Psychic Means Sometimes Required 25 

LETTER II. THE MYSTERY OF CURE 27 

Medical Fallacies 28 

The Healing Entities 30 

The Healing Mysteries 31 

LETTER III. THE BASIS OF CURE 33 

Deductions Regarding Cure 37 

LETTER IV. THE RATIONALE OF CURE ?,9 

The Curative Energies 39 

Influencing the Unconscious 42 

The Special Field for Leavitt-Science 45 

LETTER V. NATURE AND CAUSE OF DIS- 
EASE 48 

The Author's Methods 48 

Hereditary Influences 51 

A Glance at Disease Development 53 

Emotional Causes of Disease 55 

Extrinsic Causes of Disease 56 

LETTER VI. THE THREE MENTAL ATTRI- 
BUTES 57 

Loss of Balance Between Will, Intellect and 

Feeling 57 

Examples of This Unbalance in Certain Disorders 58 

Hysteria 59 

Neurasthenia 60 

A Health Guaranty 63 

LETTER VII. DIRECT PERSONAL INFLU- 
ENCE OF THE PHYSICIAN 65 

Unction 66 

Persuasion 67 



CONTENTS— Continued 

Page 
LETTER VIII. EDUCATION OF THE PHYSI- 
CIAN 70 

Environment 71 

Self-Mastery 72 

Mental Attitude Toward Sex 73 

LETTER IX. INSPIRATION BY THE PHYSI- 
CIAN 75 

The Stimuli 77 

LETTER X. SUGGESTION BY THE PHYSI- 
CIAN 80 

Hypnotism 80 

Suggestion Without Hypnotism 81 

LETTER XL COMMAND BY THE PHYSICIAN 84 

The Question of Self-Help 85 

Another Glance at Jesus' Method 86 

LETTER XII. PSYCHOANALYSIS BY THE 

PHYSICIAN 88 

Theories and Methods 88 

Suggestion Produces the Effect 89 

Freud's Dream Theories 90 

LETTER XIII. TELEPATHY IN THE TREAT- 
MENT OF DISTANT PATIENTS 93 

Unrecognized Telepathy 93 

Curative Telepathy 95 

Telepathic Curative Methods 96 

LETTER XIV. ALL CURES ARE SELF-CURES 104 

LETTER XV. SELF RE-EDUCATION 107 

LETTER XVI. SELF PERSUASION ill 

Dissociation of Parts 112 

Auto-Suggestion 114 

LETTER XVII. AUTO-SUGGESTION 116 

Manner of Giving Auto-Suggestion 118 

Results 122 

Autosuggestions 123 

LETTER XVIII. PSYCHOANALYSIS BY THE 

SELF . 126 

An Example of Its Application 128 



CONTENTS— Continued 

Page 

LETTER XIX. COMMANDING THE SELF 133 

Self-Commands 136 

LETTER XX. HOLDING THE IDEAL 139 

LETTER XXI. DEEP BREATHING 143 

Abundance of Air Essential 143 

Special 111 Effects of Lazy Breathing 144 

The Suggestive Effect 145 

Exercises in Deep Breathing 146 

LETTER XXII. PHYSICAL EXERCISES 150 

Exercise Charts 163 

LETTER XXIII. THE MATTER OF HEREDITY 223 

Heredity Represents Tendency 223 

Regulating the Habits 224 

Diet Tables 229 

LETTER XXIV. ACTION AND REACTION.... 232 

Action and Reaction in Disease 233 

LETTER XXV. THOSE OVERWHELMING 

FEELINGS 237 

A Preliminary Consideration 237 

Direct Attack on Feelings Inadvisable 238 

Controlling the Feelings 240 

LETTER XXVI. ANOTHER WORD ABOUT 

FEAR 242 

Peace, Be Still! 242 

Dissipating Fear 243 

LETTER XXVII. THOSE NERVES 248 

Charts Covering Sympathetic Nervous System.. 253 

LETTER XXVIII. THOSE NERVES— Continued 265 
Hypothetical Cases. Case One 266 

LETTER XXIX. THOSE NERVES— Continued. 

Case Two 272 

LETTER XXX. THOSE NERVES— Continued. 

Case Three. 279 

LETTER XXXI. THOSE NERVES— Continued. 

Case Four 284 



CONTENTS— Continued 



Page 
LETTER XXXII. THOSE NERVES— Continued. 
Case Five 289 

LETTER XXXIII. THOSE NERVES— Continued. 

Case Six „ 296 

LETTER XXXIV. PSYCHO ASTHENIA , 303 

Autosuggestions 310 

LETTER XXXV. UNSETTLED RELIGIOUS 

FAITH 312 

Autosuggestions > 318 

LETTER XXXVI. FINANCIAL WORRIES 321 

Autosuggestions 323 

LETTER XXXVII. THE ADVANCING YEARS. . 331 

Prolonging Life 332 

What About Motive Power? 334 

Giving Life Signification . . . 336 

Senility an Illness 338 

Autosuggestions 345 

LETTER XXXVIII. ORGANIC LESIONS 351 

Leavitt-Science in Organic Disease 352 

LETTER XXXIX. ACUTE DISEASES 356 

Inefficiency of the Old Methods 357 

Psychic Treatment of Acute Troubles 359 

Autosuggestions 361 

LETTER XL. DISORDERS OF THE CIRCU- 
LATORY SYSTEM 364 

Causes • 365 

Self-Control 368 

Autosuggestions 369 

LETTER XLI. WOMEN'S DISEASES 372 

Autosuggestions 376 

LETTER XLII. ACCIDENTS 378 

Autosuggestions 381 

SUCCESS. THE LAWS FEW AND SIMPLE.... 384 

The Environment 385 

The Covenant 386 

The Process 387 

Attainment 389 



: 




(P'C&juu&L cy(c a^fy Mod. 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 



INTRODUCTION 

Cures have undoubtedly been made in all branches 
of medicine and by an endless variety of means, but 
the real curative factor has not always been the drug, 
the manipulation or the operation employed. 

The more meager one's knowledge, the more 
dogmatic one's opinions. In reflecting upon a cure 
with a view to determining its causes we too often 
forget that the majority of ailments pass away spon- 
taneously. How to cure those that do not is the im- 
portant question. 

In analyzing psychic methods of cure I am con- 
vinced that I am arriving at a broadly rational solu- 
tion of the general curative problem — I am not aware 
that anyone has gone about the study of this impor- 
tant subject from precisely my angle. 

Leavitt-Science 

Psychotherapy, upon which Leavitt-Science is 
in part built, is now in the third of the three stages 
through which all radical improvements have to pass : 
it is being accepted with the cheerful assurance that 
its truth has never been questioned. And yet even the 

11 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

profession is densely ignorant of its worth. In ac- 
cepting certain of its features they think they are 
accepting all there is in it of value. To most prac- 
titioners of medicine it still stands mainly for hyp- 
notism, though many of its up-to-date exponents use 
hypnotism only in exceptional cases. Suggestion 
without hypnotism, re-education, persuasion, com- 
mand, psychoanalysis, telepathy and idealism are to 
them hardly known. 

Psychotherapy in its incipiency is expressed in 
a common belief long ago uttered in the confession 
that what one confidently expects is very likely to 
happen. It is a patient's faith that makes him, whole, 
and the greatest concern of the physician should be 
to keep alive a saving confidence in the minds of 
those he serves. 

Give men a working formula for health which 
commends itself to their credence, then contrive by 
various means to keep alive their faith in it, and the 
barriers of disease are the more easily broken down. 
Unqualified confidence in the development of the de- 
sired effect, accompanied by energetic turning of the 
forces of the whole organism towards the accomplish- 
ment of it, is strongly compelling. In obstinate cases, 

12 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

and especially in those wherein it is impossible for 
the patient to mobilize all his forces, the aid of an- 
other, possessed of large faith and positive mentality, 
contributes strongly to the probability of cure. 

Why all this is so I do not pretend to know. The 
fundamental action is out of sight, and about it, as 
about all life action, there is a cloud of impenetrable 
mystery. The usual laboratory tests are too coarse 
to elicit the necessary reactions, and other facilities 
for its study must be mainly psychological. 

The Question of Self-Healing 

Readers of psychotherapeutic literature are al- 
ways asking, "To what extent can we act as our own 
healers V 9 

In every case it is the patient's own forces that 
work the cure. The psychic mechanism of each of 
us is able to cope with whatever may arise if only it 
be set into right action. And yet failures arise among 
those who appear to be qualified by knowledge and 
practice to succeed. In such instances I believe the 
fatal defect is to be found in an absence of right emo- 
tional tone. The fire, the spirit, the gumption, the 
enthusiasm, the courage, the faith which constitutes 

13 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

the motive power required to operate the mechanism 
is wanting. The very passivity which lies like a spell 
on the whole organism inhibits energetic and persist- 
ent action. There are faint and pathetic risings of 
purpose, and there are spasms of energy, but they are 
again lost in inertia. 

Thus things remain until some day the ailing one 
gets hold of an inspiring book, or comes in con- 
tact with another personality that stirs him to the 
core and awakens a spirit of life and energy within 
him. The one thing lacking is thus mysteriously sup- 
plied, and the whole organism is quickened into ac- 
tivity. I have so often witnessed such phenomena 
that they have become common ; and yet I never cease 
to wonder at them. 

The physician who proves to be a true healer of 
disease is always one who is capable of supplying this 
quickening energy to his patients. He intuitively 
divines the root of the disorder and restores the suf- 
ferer to health and tranquillity by his very presence. 
What is the precise nature of the operation I do not 
pretend to know. It is still one of nature's myste- 
ries. The ultra scientist insists that the disorder was 
fanciful and the cure a mere reaction to an ignorant 

14 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

masquerade ; but his terms do not fit the case. Some 
day these very scientists mil insist that these truths 
are as old as the hills — as they really are — and that 
they have never doubted them. 

Leavitt-Science Cures Other Than Imag- 
inary Ailments 

Medicine has always followed the practice of 
smiling increduously at whatever could not be inter- 
preted after its own formulas. It repudiates all that 
comes to it from irregular sources, but is open-hearted 
and open-armed to recommendations from its recog- 
nized workers, no matter how inane, as witness the 
bones of its credulous victims which strew the course 
of practice throughout the years. 

Why should it be said that a pain is imaginary 
because, forsooth, it has been relieved by psycho- 
therapy ? Is thought, which is doing so much in the 
world to-day, to be reckoned an interloper when it 
enters the medical field ? And are those who use it 
to be dubbed quacks and charlatans because it has 
not yet been added to the armamentarium of the regu- 
lar physicians? Pain is pain wherever found, tho 
fn some people it is more easily developed than in 

15 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

others. In any case it is the sensibility of the suf- 
ferer that must settle the question of its presence or 
absence, and his testimony is as likely to be reliable 
in one instance as in the other. One can suffer most 
excruciatingly without the confirmatory evidence of a 
lesion. "It should never be drummed into a patient," 
says Dr. Moll, "because he has no organic lesion that 
his malady is consequently imaginary. Folks fre- 
quently make such remarks, but a psychologically 
trained doctor should scrupulously avoid anything of 
the kind at all times. He should know that the ex- 
pression "imaginary pains" has been excellently com- 
pared with hallucinations. Now we say that the hal- 
lucinatory object is imaginary, but it is false to say 
that the perception is imaginary; it has a central 
cause, whether the object is imaginary or not. Simi- 
larly, a pain that is felt is the result of a definite 
central process. It is a matter of indifference whether 
the central process is caused by a peripheral one, such 
as a prick, or through suggestion by a spontaneous act. 
The pain exists in both cases, and is not imaginary. 
If in the latter case the patient were to refer it to an 
external stimulus, he would be wrong. But the doc- 
tor must take the pain the patient says he feels as 
real. To combat and remove such pains is just as 

16 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

much the duty of the physician as the healing of a 
wound. A doctor may be able to detect and explain 
the functional nature of a pain, and even trace it 
to its mental origin, but he should never say it is 
imaginary." 

It is possible for certain people who have their 
psychic forces under good control to do some most 
marvelous things through the exercise of the will, and 
among them is the inhibition of pain. You will read- 
ily agree with me that this power, when acquired over 
physical sensibility, does not prove that all suffering 
is imaginary. The only spurious pains I am familiar 
with are those that a woman sometimes has as a pre- 
lude to real labor, and they are spurious only in the 
sense of being valueless to the parturient act. 

Some Valuable Data 

A quarter of a century ago Dr. George M. Beard, 
of New York, made some elaborate experiments in 
one of the large public institutions of that city to 
determine the power of the mind — and more espe- 
cially the patient's mind — over physical conditions, 
or as he puts it, "in order to determine, as accurately 
as possible, how far it is possible to cure disease by 
mental influence alone." 

17 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

I continue to quote from his record. 

"In these experiments, which were kept up for 
many weeks, no medicine of any real value was used, 
but simply what are called placebos, to act upon the 
minds of the patients, and induce them to believe 
that they were taking or doing something that would 
surely cure them. A favorite device was to tell the 
patients that they would get well at a certain day 
and hour. I would say : 'Take this, and you will be 
well on Thursday afternoon at three o'clock.' 'Take 
a drop of this mixture just as you are half through 
dinner, and in half an hour your pain will leave you.' 
In the majority of the cases — though not, of ourse, 
in all — these predictions were literally fulfilled. The 
patients did get well on the time appointed, and many 
and profuse were the thanks that I received for my 
success. 

a In these experiments were proved absolutely, 
and beyond all question, that it was possible to re- 
lieve in this way, not only imaginary functional trou- 
bles, but also genuine and organic diseases, although 
the results were more certain and more permanent 
in functional than in organic disease. It had pre- 
viously been denied by physicians that organic dis- 

18 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

eases could be affected through, the mind. 

"What astonished me most was the permanency 
of the cures in many of the cases. They not only got 
better, but they kept better, and, in some instances, 
recovered entirely." 

Dr. Beard a little later goes on to say in italics: 
"What patients confidently expect to happen will be 
very likely to happen." 

When I tell you that the physician who con- 
ducted these experiments was one of the most emi- 
nent specialists in America, was a professor in the 
University of !New York, and a man whose word no 
physician of standing would for a moment question, 
it will be evident to you that the testimony here pro- 
duced is positive, unequivocal and wholly reliable. 

The experiments not only established the validity 
of the claims made by many equally honest men to 
the value of psychotherapy in the treatment of func- 
tional ailments, but it places the stamp of approval 
on the contention of a small number of trained and 
experienced medical men that its curative virtues are 
not restricted to those diseases not yet in the organic 
stage. To me this is the most valuable part of the 

19 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

testimony, for it is upon this rock of contention that 
the friends of mind-cure in the medical ranks have 
split. Pure skepticism is the only thing that keeps 
the conservative ones from bestowing all the benefits 
these methods are capable of bringing. Leavitt-Sci- 
ence does cure organic disease. 

Cures at a Distance 

Several years ago I began experiments to deter- 
mine the true value of what has been termed "absent 
treatment." I acquired patients in various parts of 
the world who were suffering from ailments of all 
sorts, entered into correspondence with them so as 
to learn the peculiarities of each case, and then ap- 
plied to them the principles of treatment herein set 
forth. I did not attempt to do so by mere thought 
power, as do the Christian Scientists and many of 
the New Thought healers, but I educated my patients 
to think wholesomely, to hold the attitudes of confi- 
dence and authority, and to develop as masters of 
their own forces. They were told to lay aside fear 
and doubt and discouragement, and to cultivate all 
the ennobling, the uplifting and the commanding 
graces. I got into close touch with them, established 

20 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

a rapport that gave weight to my words and thoughts, 
assured them of my support, of the power of the 
suggestions I gave and of those they were instructed 
to give themselves, commanded them to diligence and 
perseverance and otherwise brought to their aid 
psychic energies in their various forms. This work 
I am still doing and the results have been so encour- 
aging that, by means of this book, I am now putting 
myself into rapport with a host of people in need of 
various kinds of help, supplying in it what they need 
to bring them back to health of body and peace of 
mind. Distant patients are asked to accept these as 
personal letters, and to make the instruction and 
inspiration they contain their daily stimuli. 

There is rarely an excuse for protracted illness 
of a slow and dilatory type. The well can stay well 
if they will, and the ill can get well. These letters 
contain a Gospel of Health full of potency. There 
are some who will find themselves unable to accept 
the message I send, and these are the very ones who 
are most likely to protest their inefficiency; but to 
those who bring to their perusal a spirit of honest 
seeking, of sincere desire and a modicum of faith, 
making the letters a daily study and their precepts 

21 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

a daily practice, they will be sure to prove "a savior 
of life unto life." 

Let the serious reader of these pages take to heart 
all that I have here set down as conclusions derived 
from long and patient research. I do not hesitate to 
commend them to the needy everywhere. 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 



Letter I 



A MORE DIRECT WORD 

Dear Header: 

Are you nervous and restless ? 

Are your spirits depressed ? 

Are you filled with fear ? 

Are you sleepless? 

Are you continually studying your feelings ? 

Are you indifferent to those you ought to love? 

Are you weak? 

Are you prematurely old? 

Are you in mental or physical distress ? 

Have you lost your grip on yourself ? 

Do you have to drive yourself to useful action ? 

Have you been bereaved ? 

Do your finances worry you? 

Does the thought of age oppress you ? 

Has life lost its color ? 

Does the thought of death rise like a spectre be- 
fore you ? 

Do you sometimes wish to die ? 

23 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

Have you been told that you have organic disease ? 

Then the letters which follow are just what you 
need. 

Among other things, they will teach you 

That your source of power is within ; 

That you ought to trust yourself; 

That trials are not enemies; 

That you should be master and not servant; 

That you have authority over yourself; 

That your moods can be controlled; 

That heredity can be overcome ; 

That your fears can be dissipated ; 

That you can sleep; 

That you can be strong ; 

That you can be of service, though old ; 

That you can recover your grip; 

That your interest can be awakened; 

That your grief can be driven away ; 

That you can recoup your losses, and 

That you can overcome your physical ailments. 

But do not misunderstand me. I do not say that 
an application of the instruction contained in these 
letters is sufficient to cure disease in all its forms; 
but I say it will prove of high value in all ailments, 
and will cure many of them. 

24 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

This means that Leavitt- Science is the most ef- 
ficient of all single means of cure; and that for func- 
tional nerve disturbances it is the only cure. 

Other Than Psychic Means Sometimes Re- 
quired 

It must be further understood that the amount 
of positive energy in one who is ailing is not always 
sufficient to bring about the desired result without 
aid from another who knows how to meet the require- 
ments of the case. If in your case an appeal has to 
be made to a physician for help, be sure to choose 
one whose practice is tinctured with the New Psy- 
chology, for the old-time notions to which most physi- 
cians are wedded are liable to prove more harmful 
than helpful. I do not mean to inveigh against the 
many physicians in every city of our land who are 
doing splendid work along lines of their own choos- 
ing. Most of them are doing their work nobly and 
honestly. That it does not prove more effective is 
the fault of its materialism. 

But you are not likely to require additional aid 
if you catch the full meaning and spirit of the letters. 

25 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

I shall not be surprised to learn that you have suc- 
ceeded far beyond your expectations. 

Now, let me go a little farther and tell you that 
you cannot expect to get well and remain so if you 
continue unwholesome ways of living and thinking. 
The mission of this book is to point out the way to 
health, and then to give you a strong push in the 
right direction. At the same time remember that : 

You will have to do the walking ; 

That the way leads up hill ; 

That in places it is very steep and difficult; 

That the course you have been following is easy 
— so easy that you can toboggan most of it; but it 
takes you to mental and physical disaster; 

That there are no easy cuts to the goal. There 
are short cuts for intrepid feet, but I do not recom- 
mend them. Take the longer course, as it gives you 
time for development and brings you to the end with- 
out weariness or ennui. 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 



Letter II 



THE MYSTERY OF CURE 

I have often denied that there is any mysticism 
about the sort of curative science I shall outline. I 
have insisted that the only requirement from the pa- 
tient is the acceptance of plain, practical truths, sueh 
as would or should appeal to the good sense of any- 
body. I say: "Here is a rational proposition, and 
one you cannot decline." Yet some do decline it. 
Others accept it intellectually without pronounced 
benefit, while others take it in, without a word, find- 
ing relief. And then I begin to think there is at least 
a mystery about the process of cure. 

The physician in general practice who follows 
orthodox methods has a similar experience. There 
are some people who can almost uniformly be raised 
out of their troubles with but little effort and with- 
out a painstaking consideration of precise methods. 
Opening his case of simple remedies, the physician 
can dispense his medicines, give the directions, and 
go away without a doubt that he shall find the patient 

27 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

better at his next visit. A single call is often suffi- 
cient to set the organic machinery in order, even 
when the symptoms have looked menacing. About 
the visit itself there seems to lurk a mysterious in- 
fluence which serves to set things going aright almost 
at once. 

In this way organic as well as functional troubles 
are sometimes disposed of as if by magic. On the 
other hand, symptoms of slight disorder quite as 
frequently give a world of trouble. Again and again 
does the doctor return to find that the patient has 
made no improvement, or has even become worse, 
when the case had given good promise of speedy re- 
covery. Remedies upon which the doctor has learned 
to rely produce no apparent effects. 

I have talked with hundreds of my confreres on 
the question and have had identical admissions from 
them. Surgeons, too, have been brought into the 
symposium with harmonious testimony. 

Medical Fallacies 

The history of medicine is full of marvelous cures 
made by earnest men whose successes led them to 
believe that they had found nature's secret regard- 

28 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

ing healing agencies. Their cures were doubtless gen- 
uine and their enthusiasms were built upon substan- 
tial results, and yet after a time their confidence was 
lost and then their house of cards came tumbling 
down. 

That greatest healer of all, the serious-minded 
Mazarine, when He returned to His own part of the 
country and undertook to work His wonders, found 
His charms inert, for it is recorded that He was un- 
able to do many marvels there. Among His success- 
ors there were for a time some wonderful cures, but 
by degrees the power to work them failed and the 
church accepted the dictum of the clergy that the 
day of miracles was at an end. 

A century and a half ago Mesmer set the French 
capital wild over his successes with all manner of dis- 
eases, and for years he was regarded with the ad- 
miration accorded to all great healers. But after a 
time he was robbed of his power and sank into 
oblivion. 

In our times innovators spring up, do marvelous 
things, catch the eye of the public, raise high hopes 
and then drop out of sight. In some of the exploited 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

remedies there is a modicum of virtue remaining as 
an accretion of truth, and tending, along with others, 
to lift the load of suffering humanity. 

Men are looking for specifics and panaceas with 
indefatigable zeal and persistency, but thus far they 
have looked in vain because they have looked in the 
wrong direction. 

The Healing Entities 

When we reflect that what we can expect from 
the outside in the work of putting this physical house 
of ours in order does not bulk very large, but that 
the forces within us are the healing entities, the ad- 
visability of choosing our helps with discretion be- 
comes evident. 

The unexpected often happens under particular 
conditions. In the very thick of a warm fight for 
supremacy the sturdy powers of the organism some- 
times receive reinforcements from unexpected and 
mysterious sources, enabling them to win a quick 
victory. We look on with wonder and see a sick man 
get well promptly when we had expected a long fight 
to cure him, and ask ourselves what it was that saved 
him. No vaunted remedy was used; the usual rou- 

30 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

tine was followed, and yet all at once the patient took 
a turn in the right direction and got well quickly. 

The Healing Mysteries 

Say what we will, the fact remains that about 
every cure there is an element of mystery. The true 
physician is a priest at a holy altar. Healing virtue 
is not to be found in the remedy itself, but in an 
unction which carries to the organic centers that won- 
derful something which works the cure. By such 
action the life forces are encouraged to get about their 
work with renewed energy and with increased intelli- 
gence. Like all the energies that we know anything 
about, this one stands wrapped in mystery. Its subtle 
elements do not react to our gross chemicals ; its true 
nature does not disclose itself at our coarse bidding. 
We are as puzzled as is the schoolboy by the magi- 
cian. 

One who is ill, having tried all the vaunted reme- 
dies without relief, picks up an idea or two from 
the teachings of another, which, joining the general 
content, set in motion new and efficient forces. An- 
other consults the same source of power without get- 
ting a particle of help. The doctor uses his powers 

31 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

upon a patient today with surprising effect, and on 
another tomorrow with no effect at all. The first 
goes away to sound his praises and the second to 
proclaim his inefficiency. 

There is mystery about the whole problem of cure, 
behind which only a few have yet had a discerning 
glance. Medicine proceeds in its blundering and 
bluffing way, while the people look on with mixed 
emotions of hope and fear. What is to come of it all ? 
The effects of disease and the means of recognition 
are being exploited. Here and there one declares 
that he is on the very verge of a great secret of cure, 
while others of larger credulity naively affirm that 
they have already found it. 

Nature does most of her work under cover; her 
forces and processes are invisible. How, then, can 
we expect to learn her secrets if we study the physical 
side of the problem only ? Our most delicate instru- 
ments of precision are too coarse. We must catch 
the emanations from the mysterious depths, and to 
do so we have to search more carefully amongst the 
mental and spiritual phenomena. It is of the re- 
sults of such research work as this that I am about 
to speak. 

32 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 



Letter III 



THE BASIS OF CURE 
An Analysis of Phenomena 

Let us now analyze the phenomena mentioned in 
my last letter, to learn, if we can, their meaning. 

One step at a time. Take first the susceptible 
patient who for some reason is so quick to respond to 
almost every form of treatment used, provided it 
be administered by his own physician or one in whom, 
for some sentimental reason, he has learned to have 
confidence. If the true potency of the remedy were 
in the drug, the vaccine, the electricity, or whatever 
is employed, the results should be substantially uni- 
form, no matter what the patient's mental attitude, 
and the treatment should win its way against the in- 
nuendoes, the sarcasms and the denunciations of the 
patient and his friends. Even tho the physician 
forced his way into the house and insisted on curing 
the patient nolens volens, he would be able to do so. 
But, says my critic, there is great resistance offered 
to the curative action of the remedy by the adverse 

33 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

mental attitude. Mental opposition is able to anti- 
dote the good effects of the remedy, no matter how 
precious its values as a curative agent. But let us 
suppose that there is no opposition, the mental atti- 
tude being one of mere indifference. The patient 
may take the ground that the medical attendant is 
not able to effect progress one way or the other. 
There is neither help nor hindrance offered the earn- 
est doctor who is trying his best to set up an action 
in his patient which shall result in his cure. With 
a neutral state of mentality in the patient, it seems 
as though the curative means and measures ought to 
be able to produce their good effects if they carry 
energy of the necessary kind. In a series of such in- 
stances the patients might all recover, just as they 
might should no remedial agent be used, for the nat- 
ural forces are the great factors in cure under all cir- 
cumstances, the remedies used doing nothing more 
than support and stimulate the life forces as they are 
marshaled to the contest. But it is not in such in- 
stances that the physician's efforts reach a high de- 
gree of efficiency. The results obtained are indiffer- 
ent. Patients are apt to feel that their own physi- 
cian becomes so well acquainted with their physical 
peculiarities that he knows best what remedies are 

34 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

suited to them. There is some truth in the suppo- 
sition, but it is not so large as is commonly believed. 
The familiarity which gives the regular attendant 
his advantage is chiefly an acquaintance with the 
mental constitution of his clients, and he reaches 
them mainly through their minds. 

Let us now turn to the phenomena accompanying 
the introduction of new remedies and analyze them 
in an equally brief way. 

When we look at the flat failures of nearly all 
the vaunted remedies for stubborn ailments which 
have been introduced during recent decades, we are 
impelled to suspect the honesty of the men who intro- 
duced them. There is no doubt that some innova- 
tors, recognizing the credulity of the public, have 
dreadfully imposed upon it. Their loud claims were 
sure to turn the confidence of many into curative 
channels and, it was assumed, the successes obtained 
were sufficient guaranty of the promoter's sincerity. 
When cures of refractory forms of disease have fol- 
lowed the administration of a remedy, it is impos- 
sible for one to sustain a contention of its lack of 
curative energy, and so the introducer of it escapes 
without legal, or even moral, rebuke. Besides, it is 

35 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

a moot question whether the resulting cures made 
under such conditions are not an adequate justifica- 
tion of the action of the introducer, even though he 
well knew that his cures resulted from psychic impres- 
sions rather than from the virtues of the remedies 
themselves. In all forms of practice there is a simi- 
lar action going on, and the most conscientious con- 
sider themselves justified in encouraging it within 
limits. Only a short time ago a physician of large 
experience, in the course of a conversation regarding 
curative measures, said to me under his breath: 
"Doctor Leavitt, the practice of medicine is a great 
big humbug." To this characterization I do not 
yield, though I am sure that there is much in medi- 
cine that passes for what it is not. Medicine deals in 
symbols without knowing it, and uses media that do 
their work in the curative field by virtue of the men- 
tal reactions they set up. A large part of medical 
practice is like that of Moses when he lifted up the 
serpent of brass before the eyes of smitten Israelites 
with so astonishing effects. The smitten ones looked 
and lived, not because of any healing power in the 
brazen serpent, but because of the tremendous 
psychic action thereby excited. Had dissension been 
awakened, and had a man of penetrating mind stood 

36 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

before them declaring the impotency of the symbol, 
the marvelous effects would perhaps have ceased, and 
even those who thought themselves healed would have 
fallen a prey to a recrudescence of their physical 
lesions. We are just beginning to recognize the mar- 
vels mind is able to work. Innate substances when 
administered with convincing assurances of relief 
have, in my hands, wrought most astonishing results. 
Set up the right mental attitudes, and the physical, 
which always takes its cue from the mental, is sure 
to respond. Everything goes to show that the heal- 
ing entities are mental, and that, outside of chemical 
and mechanical actions, even drug action is dependent 
for its results very largely on the mental states. The 
most orthodox of my medical friends will deny this 
only by refusing to attribute the curative processes 
set in motion by the drug to mind instead of brain, 
they holding to the materialistic theories, while I 
firmly believe in the immaterial. 

Deductions Regarding Cure 

There is no mistaking the fact that the problem 
of cure resolves itself into that of establishing the 
right mental attitudes. Old medicine denies the 
psychic element the place to which it is entitled, and 

37 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

that is why progress has been so slow in the direction 
of reform. In the departments of the physical sci- 
ences, such as chemistry, physiology, pathology and 
diagnosis, remarkable advance has been made, and 
in that way the efficiency of disease prevention has 
been tremendously augmented. But when it comes 
to the question of cure for the disorders it has learned 
to recognize with so great skill, medicine remains 
mute. It is always on the heels of wonderful cures, 
but it does not overtake them. It has endorsed the 
ultra scientific view, and since psychology is still in 
the nascent stage and cannot be made to divulge its 
secrets to tests designed for physical experimentation, 
it is ruled out of the laboratory. 



38 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 



Letter IV 



THE RATIONALE OF CURE 

Having given you a glimpse of the phenomena 
associated with the processes of cure when accom- 
plished through the use of different means, and hav- 
ing shown how they plainly point to an underlying 
agency or medium of a mental nature as that by which 
the problem is worked out, let us learn what we can 
of the characteristics and methods of this agency. 

The Curative Energies 

They are spoken of as "Nature," "The Vital 
Force," "The Unconscious," "The Subconscious," 
"The Subliminal Self," "The Subjective Mind," etc. 
The nomenclature is not important; it is enough for 
us to know that they make up that hidden part of 
ourselves which supervises our interests, and looks 
after that department of our affairs, mental and 
physical, which we are not consciously familiar with, 
and concerning which we are kept in conscious igno- 
rance, most likely because the work can be done in 

39 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

better form without the intermeddling by which it 
might be embarrassed. It should be regarded as the 
larger and wiser part of the mind. We really do 
but little conscious thinking, the known self having 
the power to turn its searchlight whither it will, the 
various features of things showing up here, there and 
elsewhere. The stream of consciousness is extremely 
narrow and is curiously constituted. 

This unconscious, subconscious or superconscious 
— it being variously designated — is probably the vast 
Universal Mind, the Primal Substance, the Stuff, 
the essence of all known things, of which we and 
all intelligent things are but dippings or digitations. 
This means that man shades off from his conscious 
personality into the infinite All. I mean that man 
is a differentiated part of the Great Mind, just as 
my hand, my fingers, my nails, my blood vessels, my 
nerves, and even my tiny physical cells are parts of 
me. And just as my several parts have their own 
characteristics, functions, rights, privileges and 
authorities within the scope of their peculiar action, 
so man — you and I — have autocratic authority 
within our particular domain. As parts of a whole, 
we have a right to draw on the resources of the 

40 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

whole for everything needed to make us comfortable 
and useful. 

I have made this long story very brief, as it is 
not my purpose here to enter into details, but enough 
has been said to give an idea of what I mean when 
I tell how substantial a biological basis psychotherapy 
has. 

In this practical age it becomes us to deal as 
much in pure speculation as a rational comprehen- 
sion of the causes and cure of disease demand, and 
no .more. In this place I am dealing with the prac- 
tical features of the health topic, and shall clothe my 
theories in as few words as lucidity will allow. 

From what has gone before it will be seen that 
the mind of man has two distinct phases of content 
and action, namely, the conscious and unconscious. 
I do not need to adduce proofs of the existence of 
the former. The latter is shown in the intelligent 
activities of the organism which do not rise to the 
threshold of consciousness, such as those of growth, 
metabolism, repair of injuries, adaptation to life vi- 
cissitudes, struggle with physical disorders, the men- 
tal tendency to forget unhappy experiences, to aspire 
to higher and broader planes of action, to realize 

41 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

the ideal, and so on through a long list of particulars. 
It is plain enough that there is a side of the mind 
in which originate the remote causes of conscious 
physical disturbance, and this is therefore the side 
to be reached by our efforts at prevention and cure. 
To deal with initiatives less remote is merely to con- 
cern ourselves with secondary factors — with effects 
and complications rather than causes. 

Influencing the Unconscious 

Having thus rapidly cleared the ground, it at 
once becomes patent that the chief est 'problem in cure 
is so to influence the subjective that we shall secure 
a return to concurrent, harmonious action of the or- 
ganic functions. A little further on I shall attempt 
to elucidate to your satisfaction the etiology of dis- 
ease according to this mental hypothesis. On this 
occasion I shall merely indicate the various methods 
by which those who have recognized, either fraction- 
ally or fully, the necessities of the case have sought 
to accomplish this result. 

The orthodox medical practitioner, who must 
have a side view of the truth, despite his materialistic 
tendencies and his theories of functional activities 

42 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

through reflexes, cannot escape the impression that his 
remedies have an influence on the organism above 
and beyond that of chemical or other affinity. The 
covert and inexact action of the remedies shows him 
that there are biological as well as physiological — 
some of them say psychological — elements concerned 
in the product. In his own hard and blundering way, 
too, he aims to utilize them in administering his 
varied forms of treatment. But he is so hopelessly 
involved by his gross conceptions of life and its 
processes that he cannot do so to a large and grati- 
fying extent. 

Among neurological specialists there has grown 
up a psychic form of treatment calculated to give 
good results upon the theory of the dual phases of 
mind; but so far it has been limited strictly to neu- 
roses and psychoses of the classified types. What 
are termed "organic" diseases are put into a class by 
themselves and emphatically denied the possible bene- 
fits of psychic treatment. A few advanced practi- 
tioners, like Dubois, have sought to find for them a 
minor place in the scheme of psychotherapy, but it 
has not yet been accorded by those who give regu- 
lar attention to the general diseases afflicting human 

43 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

kind. It is likely to be a long time before medicine 
in general will consent to use with system and intel- 
ligence the potencies resident in mind, even as adju- 
vants, for the cure of acute and chronic disorders. 

In a subsequent letter I shall show how all or- 
ganic changes are preceded by psychic and functional 
changes, and that what we suffer in physical change 
is but a stage in a process beginning away back in the 
brain and mind centers. 

But in the treatment of nervous and mental dis- 
orders the regular specialists are making progress. 
Their formulas now include hypnotism, suggestion in 
the waking state, reeducation, persuasion, command 
and psychoanalysis. That there is something supe- 
rior to these, adding to their power, though not neces- 
sarily displacing them, they have not yet learned. 
The step already taken is a most important one, and 
will be followed by others. Besides, they are already 
suspecting that even with what are termed pure 
neuroses and functional disorders there is a subtle 
physical modification at some point in the mech- 
anism of which subsequent organic disturbances are 
but elaborations and extensions. 

From the treatment of mere symptoms those who 
44 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND 3UPREMACY 

practice psychotherapy will surely grow into a 
knowledge that in all forms of human ailments the 
individual — the patient himself, rather than particu- 
lar symptoms — needs attention. In the organism a 
great variety of phenomena are devoloped from the 
action of similar causes, the peculiarities of the in- 
dividual determining the nature and form of the 
output. 

The Special Field for Leavitt-Science 

Leavitt-Science is peculiarly suited to nervous 
and mental disorders — psychoneuroses as they are 
called — and these it cures with a good degree of uni- 
formity. But in painful diseases of every kind, and 
especially in ailments wherein complete recovery can- 
not be expected, it is of great service in removing 
irritability, suffering, sleeplessness and all allied dis- 
comforts, thus soothing the restless, cheering the 
faint-hearted, inspiring the discouraged, and other- 
wise benefiting. In many desperate cases it has turned 
the tide of life afresh into organic channels, and haa 
thus led to unexpected recovery. No one should be 
allowed to die without having been given the chance 
to live offered by it. It can be applied in connection 

45 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

with other treatment, thereby making up for deficien- 
cies, overcoming some of its unwholesome effects, giv- 
ing point and efficiency to well-chosen remedies, main- 
taining the spirit, removing fear, purifying the men- 
tal atmosphere and otherwise doing much to promote 
recovery. 

Inasmuch as under its salutary application the 
individual is inspired to self-mastery and there is 
improvement in the whole mental and physical tone, 
success along any line of action is gratifyingly pro- 
moted. By means of mental therapy ambition can be 
awakened, courage inspired, confidence assured and 
the whole mental and physical organism tremendously 
quickened. Those who have lost spirit through any 
kind of misfortune, those bowed down by grief or op- 
pressed by fear, those whose mental strength has 
waned and whose forces have been dissipated, find in 
the mental, moral and physical aid thus given the 
very help required. Acceptance of its aid involves 
no necessary change of faith or conformity to irra- 
tional opinions. Leavitt-Science rests upon a basis 
of demonstrable truth; its principles are few and 
easily comprehended; and its methods of application, 
while demanding in the physician a large degree of 

46 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

human sympathy and the skill of the expert, are sus- 
ceptible to self-adaptation by those who put them- 
selves en rapport with one who even through his writ- 
ings shall act as their instructor, companion and 
guide. 

The personality of the physician — the weight of 
the man behind the gnn — is a large factor in the 
production of cure. The patient's forces have to be 
quickened and set into corrective action, and this al- 
ways has to be done by another, either through per- 
sonal aid or by means of the written word. This is 
the solution in general terms of the various phe- 
nomena attending upon treatment mentioned in the 
early part of this discussion. The rapport of the 
patient with his helper, designated as "transfer" by 
the nerve specialist, is the secret of success in the 
treatment not only of neuroses, but of disease in 
general. 



47 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 



Letter V 



NATURE AND CAUSE OF DISEASE 

Having given an hypothesis of subconscious 
mind by which the bulk of our thinking is done and 
in which processes are worked out, our next step 
shall be to learn what we can, in the light of psychol- 
ogy, concerning the nature and causes of disease. 

The Author's Methods 

It must be plain to all that I do not occupy com- 
mon ground with Christian Scientists and other simi- 
lar cults. I assume that disease is what it purports 
to be, a disturbance of mental and physical rest and 
peace. I can see no advantage coming from denial 
of a patent disorder. The wise thing to do is, to 
recognize it and then take proper steps to correct it. 

I am equally at variance with the orthodox con- 
ceptions of the nature and cause of disease. While 
not denying the structural changes found by a study 
of pathological states, morbid tissues and fluids, I am 
compelled as a non-materialist to look upon these as 

48 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

results of causes which reach back into mental bias 
and disturbing mental attitudes and processes. I 
reckon bacteria, exposure to unwholesome environ- 
ment and such like things as occasions rather than 
causes. There is a pathology of mind underlying 
physical expression to which medicine has not yet 
affixed a tag. 

My theories are entitled to no standing unless I 
can make clear the modus through which disease 
comes into manifestation, a thing which I shall now 
attempt. 

The unconscious side of mind, whatever its na- 
ture and its relations to consciousness through the 
physical brain and nervous systems, has been shown 
by the phenomena of hypnotism and such like actions 
to exercise marvelous control over the nervous, vaso- 
motor, circulatory and other systems. Take the case 
of a patient who comes to me in great distress of mind 
and body. He complains of pain from which he has 
vainly sought relief. I quiet his conscious agitation 
and give him strong assurance of speedy comfort. 
He soon becomes calm in mind and body. Eelief is 
complete. Another patient complains of pain and 
soreness on the back of the neck. On examination I 

49 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

find every appearance of a developing carbuncle, with 
the attendant heat, redness and swelling. The pa- 
tient has not rested for a period of thirty-six hours. 
I put him into a passive state of mind and body; I 
touch the spot gently and assure him that there is 
power in the sympathetic touch to dissipate the con- 
gestion and pain. It seems like a simple thing to do, 
and yet in some subjects it is . effective. A woman 
with severe headache calls me to relieve her suffer- 
ing. I find a temperature of 112° (this is a real 
case) and am startled by it. I apply various means 
of cure without avail. The same temperature and 
headache persist for twenty-four hours, and then, 
having put her into hypnosis — though I rarely resort 
to such treatment — I suggest immediate relief and 
the temperature falls to 100° within thirty minutes. 
To me such cases show the astonishing power of mind 
over physical states. The truth is that a belief that 
a certain thing is about to happen is quite sufficient 
to change the physical action in any part. 

No close student of psycho-physical phenomena 
has failed to observe evidences of this kind of action. 
I mention these examples as a mere introduction to a 
brief study of the development of pathological states. 

50 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

Hereditary Influences 

I know of no better way of elucidating my theo- 
ries regarding the nature and origin of disease than 
to take a typical case of chronic disease and trace 
its evolution. 

We shall begin by recalling to mind the influ- 
ence of hereditary constitutions and tendencies, since 
it is deeply impressed on every human being who 
comes into the world. The tendency varies widely, 
as we know, not only in families, but in the several 
members of a family There is an impression of gen- 
eral traits, and of particular ones as well, some of 
which create a peculiar proneness to certain phys- 
ical disorders. This feature of etiology has received 
much attention and its power has been freely ad- 
mitted. But it has been regarded as something re- 
lated wholly to the material man. The mental as- 
pects of the situation have been ignored. To me it 
is plain enough that mere matter can possess no ten- 
dency. The inborn disposition must reside in some 
unknown mental or spiritual essence. To me it is 
plain enough that physical conditions are but echoes 
of mental traits. Behind a weak body is a weak, 
perverted will. Intellect or emotion — the one or the 

51 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

other — is dominant. Back of every feeble and vi- 
tiated physical organism lies a want of balance be- 
tween the various mental attributes, expressed either 
consciously or unconsciously. 

In inborn vicious tendencies of mind and body 
we find a fertile soil for the growth of various dis- 
orders. Upon such a parent stem pathological states 
of great variety are easily grafted. These are the po- 
tent factors to be considered in our study of disease 
etiology, and unless they are recognized in the adapta- 
tions of curative ministrations we shall obtain but a 
small degree of success. 

Though these considerations are of vast importance, 
they do not constitute all that lies behind organic dis- 
turbance, for we cannot forget that the subject is 
continually establishing modifications, that the sub- 
consciousness is being stamped with fresh impres- 
sions which in their turn create an influence on 
psychical expression for good or ill. This work is 
continually going on as the organism reacts to envi- 
ronment, habits of thought and character of action, 
and all usually without the patient's conscious knowl- 
edge of his power to give it wholesome direction. 

In the absence of self-discipline and resolute 

52 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

direction, is it any wonder that heredity precipitates 
one into many forms of mental and physical disorder ? 

A Glance at Disease Development 

Upon a mental and physical background like 
that just given, disorder frames its fantastic figures. 
Let us see how the work is done. One may have 
been able to avoid serious disturbances up to a cer- 
tain point, and then disorder is precipitated by some 
particular occurrence — it may be an accident, an un- 
hygienic environment, contagion, mental strain, or 
something else, occasions of disturbance in great num- 
ber existing among all of us. But between the pre- 
disposing heredity or acquired bias and the real out- 
break of disease there is a period of incubation, or 
hatching, during which the only pathological modifi- 
cation is in the mental and nervous centers and prob- 
ably for the time quite hidden. In acute disorders 
this prodromal stage may last only a few hours, or, 
at most, a few days, while in chronic disorders it may 
extend over a period of weeks, months, or even years. 
But what I want you particularly to observe is that 
there is always a stage like this during which the 
disorder is of a purely psychical nature, and that, 
too, of a moderate type. 

53 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

I have spoken of the period of mental and nerve 
disorder as the prodromal or functional stage, but 
it is important for our purpose to divide this stage 
into two, the first being that of mere mental modifica- 
tion, wherein the disorder is a true psychosis, the 
second being the succeeding one of mental and nerve 
disorder constituting a simple psychoneurosis. 

It will be understood that the original psychosis 
marking the beginning of the disorder which may 
ultimately become a complicating and menacing or- 
ganic disease, manifests in the subconscious rather 
than in the conscious mind. That we do not know 
the true character of the bias, or what constitutes the 
ensemble of its mental symptoms, is no proof of its 
nonexistence. It seems unfortunate that it cannot 
be subjected to scientific investigation with the same 
ease as the grosser pathology of the organism. 

In the etiology of much disease there is not only 
the psychic background of heredity and acquired sus- 
ceptibility, but also an immediate or exciting cause — 
more properly occasion — of disease, of an objective 
or discernible nature, in the form of injurious emo- 
tion. 

54 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

The evil effect of certain emotions has been ob- 
served by every physician, and medicine has long 
sought to proscribe such baneful influences. Many a 
child has been made ill by nursing the breast of a 
mother who was under the spell of a depressing or 
highly exciting emotion. 

Emotional Causes of Disease 

It must be understood that the effect of emotion 
of an unregulated, riotous, highly disturbing charac- 
ter is not limited to the immediate action on the or- 
ganism. It also reduces the system to that vulnerable 
state in which serious functional and organic diseases 
can the more readily make one their prey. That 
dreaded disease, cancer in its various forms, as we 
are well aware, rises out of its nidus when the sub- 
ject is under the spell of mental depression far more 
frequently than when he is in the resistant state, cre- 
ated and sustained by emotions of a different type. 
Those under the power of mental depression seem 
also peculiarly liable to fatal attacks of pneumonia. 

The emotions in question are largely those of 
the conscious mind, but their effects are obtained by 
the influence they exert on the subconsciousness which 

55 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

has general and special charge of the administrative 
affairs of the body. 

Extrinsic Causes of Disease 

There is one feature of the subject to which I 
have not thus far adverted, and one, too, which ama- 
teur psychologists are quite apt to overlook. I allude 
to the effect of physical disturbance on the mind in 
both its conscious and subconscious phases. The best 
balanced mind is liable to become temporarily upset 
and drawn down by adverse influences proceeding 
from physical experiences of an unwholesome nature. 
Severe accident is enough to unsettle the mind for the 
time, no matter how well fortified it may be, and the 
same may be said of serious crises. Even Jesus 
reached a point in His experience where He cried 
out in agony : a My God ! My God ! Why hast Thou 
forsaken me?" There is no mind so strong that 
physical suffering cannot reduce it to a dangerous 
negativity, at least for a time. 



56 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 



Letter VI 



THE THREE MENTAL ATTRIBUTES 

Loss of Balance Between Will, Intellect 
and Feeling 

I have said that the prime cause of disease of 
all sorts is to be found in mind, and very largely 
in the subconscious. Now let us examine this claim 
a little closer, for it is new and startling to the aver- 
age man. The physician who has given the matter 
but little thought is willing to admit that certain 
diseases of a nervous type find their source in mind, 
but is very quick to deny such an origin to other ail- 
ments. The claim is contrary to all medical teach- 
ing, and yet, my reader, I believe it to be literally 
true. I have shown how all organic disturbance is 
consecutive upon a train of mental modifications ex- 
pressed in functional disorder. Even contagious dis- 
ease has its period of incubation, during which period 
the disorder is in its mental and nervous stage. It 
is only when disease has progressed beyond this point 

57 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

that we find its indications exact and convincing. 
But why do not all fall under the power of disorder 
when the exposure is uniform ? Because the resist- 
ing powers of some are able to neutralize infection. 
But upon what does this resistance depend ? I reply, 
it depends on a tone communicated by the mind in 
both its conscious and subconscious phases. The 
springs of weakness and susceptibility are found in 
the relative loss of strength and balance of the three 
attributes of mind, namely, will, intellect and feeling. 

Examples of This Unbalance in Certain 
Disorders 

While I have not worked out to my satisfaction 
the character of this unbalance in all forms of phys- 
ical disorders, I have done so in a few. For example, 
with will and emotion both plus, we are able, soon 
or late, to find evidence of delusional insanity, hys- 
teria, or such like disorder. In the former the delu- 
sion may not go to an extent necessitating the usual 
restraints, but merely to the development of psychical 
conditions whose existence and persistency depend 
on the strong suggestion found in the nature of the 
delusions. In many forms of chronic disease we 

58 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

find more or less evidence of such a trait, but the 
condition is most marked when engrafted upon a 
psychotic or neurotic base. Hysteria, in its protean 
forms, shows a similar action. Feelings are given 
precedence in authority, and are allowed to carry the 
subject into remarkable manifestations of psychic dis- 
order. Intellect may be keen enough, but its domi- 
nance is overpowered by feeling. 

Hysteria 

In hysteria we come up against a will of large 
volume, but a will set in a wrong direction. Such 
patients are stubborn to the last degree. Ordinary 
coercion only aggravates them, and argument is lost 
on them. To cure them, one emotion has to be played 
against another until such time as the set order be- 
comes broken. Having thus gained a foothold, we 
can lead these stubborn patients out of the snares set 
by their emotions, through appeals to reason. They 
can be persuaded by one who has come into rapport 
and in whose loyalty and strength they have confi- 
dence. 

I say we must set one emotion against another, 
much as hunters use trained animals and decoy fowls 

59 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

to capture their game. But these emotions have to 
be of an inspiring nature, in general, though fear may 
sometimes be introduced with good effect. In any 
case it is necessary to guard against allowing the new 
emotions to run away with the patient and thus de- 
stroy the good effects aimed at. 

As an illustration of what I mean by the kind 
of treatment mentioned, I shall allude to the con- 
trol which can sometimes be exercised over an hysteric 
through threats, or by strong command. Nervous 
outbursts have often been averted by the menace of 
a hot iron. As the erotic sentiment is strong in this 
class of patients, the finding of a responsive object 
of love is frequently attended with positive relief of 
the pathological symptoms. The development of re^ 
ligious fervor is capable of producing a similar effect. 

Neurasthenia 

In neurasthenia we have an example of will 
minus ; intellect normal in quality, but minus in ex- 
pression ; and emotion, as in hysteria, plus. The neu- 
rasthenic is ruled by his feelings, but unlike the hys- 
teric, his will is not normal in volume, and there- 
fore he does not sink into ruts from which he refuses 

60 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

to be dislodged. The judgment is more easily con- 
vinced, and he responds better to suggestion because 
intellect is not depressed below the standard. He is 
carried away and held in captivity by his weaknesses. 
The more profoundly he has sunk in subjection to 
his emotions, the more riotous do they become, until 
he reaches a state of veritable slavery to his anxieties. 
I have had cases of psychoneurasthenia who were so 
obsessed by fear as to live in continual terror in their 
own homes and in the midst of their families. 

Owing to gradually growing subserviency to 
their anxieties and depressions there is an augment- 
ing tendency to move in lines of small resistance, 
which course finally reduces them to a state of abject 
and impotent prostration of all strong and noble 
sentiments. 

In such cases, will being the relatively weak and 
diminishing attribute, relief can be had only through 
strict attention to its cultivation. It is useless to 
seek relief in drugs. Sometimes an ocean voyage 
or a radical change of residence or occupation restores 
temporary tranquility by waking strong and divert- 
ing emotions; but the lack of mental balance and 
the existing wrong conception of protective princi- 

61 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

pies are very certain to bring the patient into the 
original state again. 

Neurasthenia is sometimes induced by a mental 
state in which will is normal, but intellect and emo- 
tion being plus make it relatively weak, while the 
plus intellect serves, when thus associated with plus 
emotion, to maintain a state of unrest quite unbear- 
able. 

Such a state of unbalance is usually associated 
with a weak physique, and sometimes with a ten- 
dency to tuberculosis. This particular form of 
neurasthenia is more apt than other forms to end 
in serious organic trouble when left unchecked. 

I shall not go farther with this phase of the dis- 
cussion. My purpose was chiefly to give you an 
idea of the relationship of cause and effect existing 
between mind and body when interpreted in terms 
of pathology. The materialist will deny the force 
of my thesis. He could not rationally do otherwise. 
I am not a materialist and accordingly can accept 
a theory of the mental organ of disease, which I 
have found of the greatest value in practice. With 
an etiology not going back of what responds to re- 

62 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

search conducted in the ordinary laboratory I am 
not surprised that medical treatment has been alto- 
gether inefficient. 

A Health Guaranty 

It must be clear from what I have said that the 
surest guaranty of physical health is an even balance 
between the three attributes of mind, namely, will, 
intellect and feeling, as they are allowed to find 
expression in mental attitudes and physical action. 
Not a thought engages the intellect, not a vibration 
sweeps through emotion, not a question is settled by 
will but it finds an echo in some form of physical 
modification. 

The concrete self as it exists in mind is con- 
tinually being stamped on the physical organism, so 
that what we really are in our essential ego is to be 
read in the body. 



63 



PSYCHOTHERAPEUTIC MEANS 
USED BY THE PHYSICIAN 
OR HEALER 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 



Letter VII 



DIRECT PERSONAL INFLUENCE OF 
THE PHYSICIAN 

Before attempting to set before you the available 
means of self-help it will be well to take a glance at 
the methods of psychic aid at the disposal of the 
physician, for in obtaining help without his direct 
aid it will still be necessary for one to bring to bear 
the very influences used by him. 

The value of a coefficient idea depends on the 
standing it finds in the mind of the one to whom 
it is addressed. The force of an idea depends in 
good measure also on the energy with which it is 
launched. The mind that is acquainted with the 
nature of the power to be used upon it, and has an 
exalted opinion of the agent through whom it is to 
come, is in the fittest possible state to be deeply 
impressed. It may even await with breathless ex- 
pectation its arrival, with a degree of confidence that 
guarantees its salutary effect. If in addition to this 

65 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

the agent proceeds to the task with assurance and 
courage, the desired results are almost sure to fol- 
low. The charlatan is not a stranger to these truths 
and is often very clever in their utilization. 

Unction 

Most valuable of all is what I shall call "unction/' 
which every successful physician carries to his 
patient. It is the power of his own soul and per- 
sonality going out freely and effectively towards the 
object of his concern. To this I have already made 
some allusion, and I shall not here dilate upon it. 
It is a yearning, much like that which a mother has 
for a child — a heartfelt desire to help and bless, to 
strengthen and uplift. 

Under the power of such a feeling he takes up 
the treatment of a case, examines it, studies its com- 
plexes, senses the state of consciousness presented by 
it, and the measure of confidence it brings. He 
weighs it in the delicate scales of his own sensi- 
bilities, and the degree of reaction it sets up in him 
he thoughtfully estimates. In coming to a physician 
for help the patient brings into immediate contact 
two personalities who look into each other's lives and 

66 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

begin to study the latent harmonies in them — the 
possible harmonies not hitherto awakened. The re- 
lationship of physician and patient is a holy one, 
and only those appreciating its values are able to 
extract them. 

In ordinary practice a different state of affairs 
prevails, and the wretched failures characterizing it 
are the natural outcome. The patient must lie next 
to the heart of the physician if the ministrations of 
the latter are to prove availing; and the patient, for 
his part, must feel that he has committed his in- 
terests to an earnest, honest, reliable guide. A patient 
who is nothing but "a case" to his physician would 
better seek elsewhere for aid at the earliest moment. 

Persuasion 

You will be surprised to learn that persuasion is 
one of the most valuable means of help in "the new 
medicine.' ' The patient has really to be persuaded 
to bring to bear upon the disorder all the force of 
his psychic energies. He may have thought that he 
had been doing so all the time, but it will not take 
long to show him that he has not. In spite of him- 
self he has been wavering and eccentric. At no time 

67 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

has he been "fully persuaded." There has been a 
paralyzing residuum of doubt. But now enters the 
strong helper, and supplies the stimulation till then 
lacking to give point and efficiency to the patient's 
powers. And, first of all, to his will. The will to 
be well, and not to be well on some distant and un- 
certain day, but right away, has to be mustered. So 
now the personality who has come to the patient's 
aid, and with whom he already feels a working 
harmony, brings out and organizes this will, and then 
gives it the initial push in the right direction. 

Up to this point in the history of the disorder the 
patient's will has not been laggard from want of 
purpose to set it moving; but it has lacked the neces- 
sary feeling tone to fire it into efficient action. The 
patient has tried, and tried, and tried; but all his 
efforts have been in vain. His most desperate at- 
tempts to extricate himself have given rise to mere 
floundering. He has made little or no progress; he 
has been "beating the air." The old philosopher de- 
clared he could lift the earth could he but find a 
suitable fulcrum for his lever. When a patient has 
enlisted the aid of one who knows, and who is big 
enough and strong enough to command his confi- 

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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

dence, lie has found a stable fulcrum, and the lever 
of his will can then lift the burden. 

The patient has to be persuaded to unite all his 
energies with those of his adviser and helper, freely 
following his directions and resolutely refusing to 
interpose obstacles to progress. This is a hard thing 
to do, and yet it must be done in order to insure suc- 
cess. It amounts to a full abandonment of one's 
own ideas to those of the physician that brings suc- 
cess, just as it is the giving of one's full confidence 
to a guide that brings the lost one safely out of the 
labyrinth. He who has made the study of ways and 
means of cure the business of his life is entitled to 
that measure of confidence which the exigencies of 
the case demand. The physician s power is con- 
ditioned by the patient's faith in him, and in the 
outcome. 

Much persuasion is sometimes necessary to hold 
the patient to a continued effort, as the tendency 
towards discouragement in those who are ill is so 
overwhelming. He must be persuaded to hold on in 
the face of every discouragement, under the assur- 
ance that the crown belongs only to the faithful. 



€9 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 



Letter VIII 



EDUCATION BY THE PHYSICIAN 

The educational side of psychotherapy is large. 
Ignorance is responsible for most of the illness afflict- 
ing humanity, and it is an ignorance which can find 
no relief in the schools as their curricula are now 
arranged. That may be a startling dictum; but it 
is absolutely true. Men and women need to be told 
how to adjust themselves to environment; and they 
require to be told again and again that the only way 
to escape the ills that afflict them is to quit strug- 
gling with environment that is obstinate and inflex- 
ible, and to adapt themselves to it. Instead of doing 
this, most of the wretched ones are beating the hard 
walls about them in hopeless desperation. 

Broken Laws 

I do not say that all features of environment are 
hard and fixed beyond modification. On the con- 
trary, in every instance of suffering there is plainly 
discoverable some evidence of ignorant infraction of 

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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

law. People do not keep the middle of the road, but 
are induced to wander into byways and hedges beset 
with danger. Despite all our declarations of inde- 
pendence we are undeniably under the power of re- 
strictions. Our energies have their limitations. 
There are certain practices inimical to health of body 
and peace of mind regarding which we can learn all 
that is necessary for our safe guidance if we will 
but open our eyes and ears to wisdom; but most of 
us go on blindly until we get a good jerk from a 
snubbing post, and then it may be we open our hearts 
to the knowledge which has long been knocking for 
admission. 

Environment 

The patient has to be taught to discriminate be- 
tween environments which cannot be materially modi- 
fled and those that are of their own making and there- 
fore subject to change. For example much of the 
illness afflicting men springs from emotional conflicts 
between reason and feeling, between fact and fancy, 
between their caprices and another's obstinances, be- 
tween the strong emotions of one and the stony in- 
differences of another ; between tactlessness and sensi- 
tiveness. This opens up a large field of operation 

71 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

for the physician and one in which there is ample 
opportunity for the display of pedagogical wisdom 
and skill. Thwarted purposes, wounded feelings, 
hurt pride, hot anger, hysterical emotions have to be 
given relief in the main through instruction which 
discloses to patients the remedial situations they have 
built up. When people learn that they are causing 
their own troubles by not being masters of their own 
forces they are usually willing to make a change. 

Self-Mastery 

They need to be taught the possibility and the 
advantage of self-mastery. And when once they are 
convinced of this need, they have to be shown how 
to proceed successfully with the undertaking. Of 
the meaning of self-mastery such people are com- 
monly ignorant, and they need not hope to learn 
from a physician who himself is the very opposite 
of an adept. It is too commonly supposed to be little 
more than hard and arid self-denial, and for this 
reason people are averse to acquiring it. Life is hard 
enough they think without encumbering it with un- 
called for austerities, and why should they go from 
one state of wretchedness to another? They do not 

72 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

realize that they have authority over their bodies, 
and are quite ready to confess the power of disease 
over them. They have not come to a consciousness 
of power. And so they have to be told these things, 
not once, but repeatedly, for men are slow to learn 
the principles of wholesome and joyous living. 

Mental Attitude Towards Sex 

They have to be taught the meaning of experiences 
such as they come up against in life, and the mental 
attitudes to be assumed towards them. They need 
to know themselves better, their nature, the relations 
of mind and body and the influences exerted by the 
one upon the other. The relation of physical func- 
tion to the harmonies of life require to be appre- 
hended in, a way not taught in the schools. They 
have to be set right on certain points regarding sex 
matter. As a matter of fact a good share of the 
chronic disqualifying ailments have their origin in 
the sex sphere, and no permanent relief is to be had 
from a course which does not take these into account. 
Through ignorance of fundamental truths regarding 
the sex relationship the quota of nervous ailments is 
being continually augmented. Yet here stands a 

73 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

great taboo, and it is left for the wise and skilful 
physician to become an instructor to clients made 
up of those who have already fallen under the cruel 
hand of ignorance. Ah, what he now tells them 
ought to have been communicated in advance, as a 
wholesome prophylaxis. 

Then there are the degenerate, the defective, the 
perverted, all of whom require reeducation along 
lines of thinking and acting tending to supply de- 
ficiencies, to correct tendencies and to open up new 
vistas. It is when such people are under the suffer- 
ing incident to their several constitutional dyscrasias 
that their minds are most open to wholesome instruc- 
tion. 

It will be understood that this is a mere glance 
at what can be done for sick people by way of edu- 
cation, but it will suffice for present purposes. 



74 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 



Letter IX 



INSPIRATION BY THE PHYSICIAN 

I have already indicated that the deep and potent 
source 4 of the physician's healing virtues lies in the 
wealth of his personality, and that his success with 
the ill is graduated to the degree of his ability to 
make this power available. There are many patients 
Avho prove refractory to the best directed and most 
energetic influences which can be brought to bear 
upon them ; and yet it is also true that the percentage 
of failures varies according to the potency of the per- 
sonality dealing with them. The reason for this is 
plain when we reflect that each one of us is positive 
to all below him in point of character, and of course 
negative to all above. It is the positive, strong, big, 
wise and admirable who exercise the greatest in- 
fluence over each of us. I have said that physicians 
of this type do the best work in the direction of 
persuading their patients into strong resistance to 
the various morbific influences in their environment. 
Their arguments are accepted by their listeners as 

75 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

unanswerable and all compelling. Now I want to 
tell you that the physician is called upon to furnish 
his patients also with a flood of inspiration. 

One usually conies to a physician in a state of 
mental depression due to the mental and physical 
disorders which oppress him. Many of the sufferers 
in the waiting rooms of every doctor are in a state 
of deep dejection, out of which they are looking for 
an uplift; and who but the doctor is to supply it? 
The attention of such sufferers is fixed upon their 
troubles. Their bad feelings have become the domi- 
nant features of their experiences. The mind nat- 
urally turns towards whatever is most conspicuous 
in environment; and, when the mental powers are 
untrained and there is little in the emotional side of 
life spontaneously to furnish the stimulation required 
for stronger thinking and acting, one instinctively 
dwells upon the dark features of every scene that 
presents. 

To the relief of this situation the physician has 
to turn his attention. These mental attitudes have 
to be changed, and the feeling-tone of the patient has 
to be improved in some way, or the other means of 
relief will be overweighted by them. If the doctor 

76 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

is full of life and good cheer, if his whole expression 
is optimistic and reassuring, the patient will catch 
more or less of the influence from the repeated con- 
tacts furnished by his visits. Then, too, the thought- 
ful physician who appreciates the value of a lighter 
emotional complex always takes particular pains to 
inject into the mental atmosphere of his patient as 
much brightness and crisp vigor as he can. 

The Stimuli 

It is not a part of my present purpose to give any 
detailed instruction regarding the best methods of 
doing this, but only to indicate as clearly as I can 
the nature of the stimuli required. And first, since 
such patients are characteristically introspective, 
diversions of various sorts are of prime importance. 
To one suffering the effects of an acute nervous break- 
down, change of surroundings, such as is furnished 
by travel, does much for his relief. Where one can- 
not avail himself of such an adjuvant, smaller diver- 
sions are of much help. But to depend upon such 
aids for radical cure of the disorder is always an 
error. It amounts to a mere begging of the case; 
for, since the patient himself has not been radically 
changed in his mode of thinking, the good effects 

77 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

cannot be enduring. Under a renewal of the mental 
and nervous strain incident to the usual and essential 
modes of living, there is a renewal of the disturbance 
in an aggravated form. 

It is of the utmost importance for the sufferer to 
get a larger and more cheerful outlook upon life. 
Going to Europe for a season, or to any other part 
of the world, will not suffice. His mental and moral 
nature require development, that he may be saved 
from the disorganizing and dissociating effects of life 
lived, as it commonly is, in its superficial and 
thoughtless phases. And so the physician has to be- 
come more than a diagnostician, more than a student 
of anatomy, physiology, pathology, chemistry, bac- 
teriology and general therapeutics; he has to be a 
friend, an adviser, a teacher, an inspirer. He has to 
draw near enough to learn the patient's problems 
and to enter into a sympathetic, cooperative and 
often long-lasting effort to solve them. He has to 
point out again and again the delights and advantages 
of living on a high plane of thought and action, and 
to use his warm efforts to turn the patient's view 
away from the narrow, the sordid and the dark 
aspects of life, towards the high places, the pleasant 

78 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

situations, the noble purposes, and the bright points 
ahead. The success with which he can do these things 
is the measure of his value as a healer of men. 

What I have just said with regard to nervous dis- 
orders applies with equal force to ailments of what 
are called an organic type. It may require even 
more time and a closer analysis to deal successfully 
with them, for they have proceeded further on the 
pathological way; but we have a right to expect 
equally good results from our efforts in the long run. 
At any rate I do not think we are justified in setting 
limitations to the power of rightly directed thought 
energy, for I do believe that there is greater hope of 
ultimately obtaining uniformly good results in these 
ailments, some of them presenting serious lesions, 
from psychotherapy than from any other means of 
cure. The latter will live and flourish when the 
serum and drug therapies of today remain only as 
memories. 



79 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 



Letter X 



SUGGESTION BY THE PHYSICIAN 

Hypnotism 

Suggestion and hypnotism have so long been inter- 
changable terms that it is now hard to divorce them. 
I use but little hypnotism in my work, and still most 
of the patients sent to me by my confreres have 
been told that what they need is hypnotism for their 
relief and that I am the man to use it. The truth is 
that hypnosis is merely one of the phenomena of 
suggestion. It is one of the evidences of the potency 
of suggestion, just as is natural sleep. In hypnotism 
the person is put to sleep by the assurances of the 
physician that he is sleepy; in sleep which we term 
normal a similar effect is produced by the recumbent 
posture — after suitable preparation for rest — a lower- 
ing of the lights, closure of the eyes, an easy posi- 
tion and an expectant attitude. In both cases the 
somnolence which ensues, by frequent repetition, be- 
comes a sort of habit. 

It is true that psychotherapy as a systematic prac- 

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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

tice has its beginnings in hypnotism; but experience 
has demonstrated the value of other forms of sugges- 
tion and other psychic formulas that give results 
sometimes more satisfactory in their duration and 
more agreeable to the patient. 

Suggestion Without Hypnosis 

In a broad sense the efficiency, not only of all 
forms of practice, but also of the various forms of 
psychotherapeutic procedure, rests upon suggestion 
in various guises. It may not astonish you to be 
told that the factor of suggestion is so uniformly to 
be found in every therapeutic measure, surgery in- 
cluded, that, were it possible wholly to eliminate it, 
the fabric of medicine would crumble. It is the very 
warp and woof of psychotherapeutics. What would 
persuasion, inspiration, command and psychoanalysis 
be without it? Education itself depends in large 
measure upon it. I know this dictum will be hotly 
repudiated by most orthodox practitioners, and yet 
it cannot be logically overthrown. 

But it is to the systematic practice of suggestion 
by the physician that I now call your attention. In 
my own work it occupies the place of honor. In my 
esteem there is no other therapeutic measure that 

81 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

reaches its level. In this respect my position is 
unique. Dr. Boris Sidis is of the opinion that in- 
direct or larvated suggestion is most effective. With 
some patients this may be true, but I do not fail to 
get good results from direct oral suggestion given in 
the form of a quiet talk made as impressive as I can 
make it in manner and substance. Such a talk may 
easily become offensive to a patient, and one has to 
be a good judge of human nature to avoid making 
himself ridiculous. What takes with most patients 
is a vocabulary graduated to the comprehension of 
an ordinary mind, but always warm from the ex- 
perience of the speaker ; sentences that start a multi- 
tude of helpful images, and that abound in the con- 
crete and specific, each talk depending, for theme, 
on the patient's immediate condition, upon events 
immediately preceding, or on some suitable topic of 
conversation. This is the kind of suggestion, made 
to the patient while he is in a passive mental state 
and usually in a supine physical attitude, based upon 
the physician's estimate of the aptitudes of the sug- 
gestions to the needs of the listener, reiterated at 
daily or bi-daily intervals, that proves most effective. 
The deep organic processes do not respond to sug- 
gestions until the subconsciousness has become fully 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

convinced that they do not express the mere caprices 
of the patient and his helper, and it is not so credu- 
lous as to accept oral directions that are not supported 
by consistent demeanor and lively expectancy. But 
when there is undeniable earnestness, hearty co- 
operation between physician and patient, and an un- 
wavering confidence on the part of both in effects, 
there can be no total failure. It often happens, how- 
ever, that such a degree of cooperation between pa- 
tient and physician cannot immediately be obtained, 
and then the certainty of results is diminished. In- 
deed this is quite liable to be the situation at the 
start, and in that case the physician has to urge the 
suggestions that shall contribute to more ideal con- 
ditions as best he can, and at the same time cultivate 
in silence that earnest longing to be of service, which 
is a prevailing asset, under the hope that the looked- 
for rapport shall ultimately become established. 

In making his suggestions the physician resorts to 
all the devices of the orator. He has a great advan- 
tage over an orator in that his audience is small, has 
sought him out, is solicitous, and cannot well be in- 
attentive. Under such circumstances an earnest, en- 
thusiastic speaker has every opportunity to make a 
deep and lasting impression. 

83 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 



Letter XI 



COMMAND BY THE PHYSICIAN 

It may surprise you to learn that command has 
a place in the practice of psychotherapy. It has a 
very conspicuous one. In truth when we come to 
study the details of the marvelous cures wrought by 
the Great Physician it at once becomes apparent how 
large a place command was given in his scheme. So 
pronounced was this feature of healing that the 
emissary sent out by the Jewish authorities to find 
evidence upon which to convict Him reported that 
"He spoke as one having authority." The best 
equipped psychotherapist always feels his authority, 
and why should he not assert it whenever the exi- 
gencies of the case call for vigorous handling ? Jesus 
said to the lame, "Rise and walk!" to the sick, 
"Arise!" to the obsessing evils, "Come out!" and 
to the threatening waves, "Peace, be still!" In this 
spirit of authority He went throughout that country 
commanding away the disorders that beset those poor 
people; and, whenever he found faith in them suffi- 

84 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

ciently strong to insure the right reaction, He spoke 
with effect. 

It is well to use persuasion, and there are certain 
cases in which it offers the best hope of success; in 
every case we have to deal out large measures of in- 
spiration; in most instances there has to be a good 
deal of education ; in all there is call for suggestion ; 
and over some there has to be exercised positive 
authority, — weak wills being unable to carry the 
needy ones to the goal. So utterly inert have be- 
come the volitionary energies of some sufferers that 
they have to be taken literally, as well as figuratively, 
"by the collar" and made to do the things their judg- 
ment commends, but to the doing of which they are 
unable to muster sufficient moral courage. In many 
of these instances the desire to do is present; there 
is not positive opposition to doing; but purpose falls 
down ere the necessary step has been taken. 

The Question of Self-Help 

I should like to illustrate this feature of practice 
but I refrain from doing so. The benefits of mental 
and spiritual therapy should be within the reach of 
every intelligent person, just as are those of religion. 

85 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

In going at some length into a discussion of the salient 
features of the practice as it is conducted by physi- 
cians my purpose is merely to make the reader famil- 
iar with the fundamental means of cure, as this is 
essential to an intelligent application of the cure to 
one's self. 

Another Glance at Jesus' Methods 

In Jesus' day the popular ideas of pathology were 
not at all like those now prevailing. There was a 
common idea that evil spirits took possession of peo- 
ple in some instances, and the phenomena of epilepsy 
and insanity were supposed to be due to such causes. 
Whether Jesus Himself accepted this view or not, 
He tentatively endorsed it, and His commands were 
issued to those obsessing demons. The formula He 
followed cut no important figure in the cure, except 
for its effect on the patient. Had He employed any 
Other there would have been a fatal lack of faith on 
the part of the patient and multitude. The psycho- 
therapist sometimes addresses himself to the subcon- 
sciousness of the subject as though it were a separate 
entity, or even to particular organs or systems of the 
body, though he may not believe in the existence of 

36 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

two distinct minds or the possibility of independent 
action, at will, of the organs or systems addressed. 
When I come to discuss the methods of self-help I 
shall instruct the reader to confer with himself — 
with his deeper self — and the several functions Re 
aims to influence. In passing I may say that this 
personification of particular parts of the organism is 
fully justified by the facts of the case. 

In concluding this part of the subject let me add 
that we have not given as great importance to this 
feature of practice — command — as the results of ex- 
perience fully warrant. The forces which have in 
charge the organic functions mock at those trembling, 
respectful souls who set themselves up as healers with- 
out attempting to enforce obedience. 



87 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 



Letter XII 



PSYCHOANALYSIS BY THE 
PHYSICIAN 

For a few years the psychic treatment of nervous 
diseases has been given over in large measure, by the 
regular specialists, to psychoanalysis. The leaders 
in the movement have been Freud, in Europe, and 
Boris Sidis, in this country. Their methods have 
differed in some respects, the former devoting his 
efforts largely to the analysis of dreams which he 
believes express the action of the subjective mind, 
and when rightly interpreted disclose certain psychic 
repressions that act as provoking causes of the nerve 
disorders. The latter puts his patients into a state 
bordering on hypnosis and follows the clues furnished 
by spontaneous thoughts to the repressions or psychic 
scars which Freud seeks more particularly in the 
dreams. 

Theories and Methods 

The methods are most ingenious, and one cannot 
doubt that they often prove effective. At the same 

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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

time the accepted modus of the therapeutic effect is 
as doubtful as the processes are tedious. Moreover, 
the opinion that a psychic scar which has been long 
absent from the conscious memory is the cause of the 
chain of unpleasant symptoms found in the patient 
is on a par with the belief that the efficient causes 
of nervous disorders are uniformly to be found in a 
physical lesion. It has not yet been conclusively 
shown that the disappearance of the symptoms is 
proof positive that the theory is true. It is impos- 
sible to exclude from the result the factor of sug- 
gestion. 

Suggestion Produces the Effects 

Let us go a little further and analyze the methods 
so highly vaunted. In the first place I shall assume 
that comparatively few patients fall into the hands 
of these specialists without knowing something of 
the methods commonly employed by them as well as 
the results of treatment in other cases, so that we 
have a right to assume that the patient's mind is 
usually prepared in advance to accept the physician's 
statement as final and authoritative. To those who 
have no such previous knowledge they are made clear 

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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

enough as the analysis proceeds, for it must be under- 
stood that the course is usually long and the seances 
usually of an hour's length. The fishing process 
adopted doubtless becomes most interesting, and in 
the eager expectancy is found a favorable soil for the 
rapid germination of the implanted suggestion. 
When it is considered that an hour a day for many 
consecutive weeks is often given the study, and the 
minds of both patient and physician are kept con- 
tinually on the alert and highly expectant by the 
nearer and nearer approach to what is regarded as 
the real cause of the nervous disorder, we cannot be 
surprised to learn that the results are sometimes most 
excellent. In truth it would be difficult to plan a 
better stratagem to produce the effects of suggestion. 
I applaud the acumen that developed it. At the 
same time I deny that the mere exposure of some 
incident which had long been lost in mental rubbish 
is the secret of the effect. The latter would be just 
as pronounced whether a real relationship existed be- 
tween the incident and the development of the neu- 
rosis or not. 

Freud's Dream Theories 

I should like to digress from the explicit purpose 

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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

of these letters to give you at some length my ideas 
concerning the dream theories of Freud. In some re- 
spects I regard them as most grotesque and far- 
fetched. He would lead us to see in the phantas- 
magoria of every dream the symbolic fulfillment of 
a wish. That certain dreams may be thus inter- 
preted I do not question ; but that they ought always 
to be is claiming too much. Freud also insists that 
all dreams have an erotic base, and that all nervous 
disorders spring from some erotic abnormality. Here 
again I shall say that he errs only in making the 
law so comprehensive. It is true, as every close 
student of nerves has learned, that the erotic sense 
enters into a large proportion of such cases as a dis- 
turbing element. It is a factor always to be reck- 
oned with. 



91 



TREATMENT OF PATIENTS AT A 
DISTANCE 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 



Letter XIII 



TELEPATHY IN THE TREATMENT 
OF DISTANT PATIENTS 

What can be done at a distance needs now to be 
told, and to a consideration of this part of my subject 
I invite the closest attention. 

Unrecognized Telepathy 

We have good reason to believe that on the sub- 
conscious plane we are really aware of much that 
never comes to recognition. Through the subliminal 
we come into intimate relationship with all cosmic 
activities and are able to tap the common reservoir 
of knowledge at will. 

This being admitted, it is fair to suppose that our 
springs of thought and action are supplied by knowl- 
edge and suggestion drawn from sundry widely- 
separated sources, and that to such supply we are 
indebted for what we commonly regard spontaneity. 

A farther fair presumption is that subconscious- 
ness, being in such intimate relationship to all that 

93 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

the cosmos holds, is able, on occasion, to draw from 
any and every source whatever information it may 
deem desirable. 

The truth is that we do not expect enough: we 
do not demand enough. The more responsibility 
we throw upon ourselves and the more confidence we 
give ourselves the greater our returns on the plane of 
consciousness. There is an infinitude of knowledge 
open to us on the unconscious side of our being, con- 
ferring on the deeper, the truer, Self an ability to 
act with hitherto unrecognized intelligence, and we 
ought to demand better service. Mankind has be- 
come so accustomed to regard itself as a dependent 
that its meager expectations are not astonishing. 

/ believe myself fully justified in saying that 
thought-transferrence on the side of the subliminal 
is the rule rather than the exception, and that the 
chief problem awaiting solution is how to establish 
facile communication between the conscious and un- 
conscious phases of mind. 

But there is another phase of unrecognized thought- 
transferrence which concerns more directly the con- 
sciousness. I refer to that of which communicated 
courage, fortitude and enthusiasm are examples. 

94 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

There is a contagion of good things as well as bad. 
In the ordinary practice of medicine there is much 
of this action exemplified. To it is also attributable 
a good part of the "influence" exerted by one upon 
another. 

Curative Telepathy 

Having shown the possibility of telepathic com- 
munication between minds we have established a re- 
liable scaffolding from which to build up faith in the 
possibility of psychic cure of disease at a distance. 
It must be evident that he who admits the possibility 
of thought-transferrence has no ground left for deny- 
ing the possible transmission of curative thought. 
There can be made no rational distinction in the 
nature of the transferred thought, every explicit 
sentiment being freely communicable. Accordingly, 
if I can send to another a suggestion concerning busi- 
ness or domestic affairs, I can just as surely send a 
suggestion of health. 

As a matter of fact, it will be seen that the ad- 
mitted possibility of telepathic communication be- 
tween minds narrows the controversy to the one gen- 
eral question respecting the efficiency of mental 

95 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

suggestion with its sequential stirring of the patient's 
curative energies. It follows that, as it is not a part 
of my present purpose to recite the evidences of the 
possibility of disease cure by psychotherapy, I shall 
assume that such action is a fact established beyond 
the possibility of rational denial. So many psychic 
cures have been wrought within recent years that the 
question of cure by this means is not longer debatable. 

Telepathic Curative Methods 

My idea is that in establishing the possibility of 
telepathy npon a substantial basis we are not obliged 
to lug into the case conditions essentially different 
from those already known to constitute the framework 
of what we term physical phenomena. It is not at 
all likely that thought can be transmitted from one 
person to another without a medium of communica- 
tion. We know that it can be transmitted by means 
of objective entities, such as letters and telegrams; 
but it transcends probability that it can travel through 
a vacuum, and such a supposition is not essential to 
a rational hypothesis of action suggested by the phe- 
nomena. 

What, then, is the medium of communication? 
96 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

The pulsations of the wireless telegraphic message 
are dependent upon ether ic and electric media for 
their transmission, and it requires no great stretch 
of the imagination to accept the same medium for 
the direct transmission of thought. 

But the electrician has not succeeded in sending 
his messages either over the wire or on "the wings 
of the wind" without establishing a circuit. He 
forms a connection which serves to both carry away 
and bring his messages, this being accomplished by 
means of a ground wire, the earth thus being made 
to furnish one part of it, while the strung wire, or 
the universal ether, furnishes the other. Now I sug- 
gest that a similar circuit is necessitated in the 
mechanism which we provide for successful telepathy. 
The individual could not dispatch his mental mes- 
sage to another but for his ground connection with 
the Universal Mind, of which the human mind is 
but a differentiated part. But our knowledge of both 
physics and metaphysics is still so meager that our 
theories are usually vague and unsatisfying. It is 
very certain that our best-formed hypotheses are far 
from being dependable and final. They are bound to 
change. Present opinions are but steps in the process 

97 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

of mental and spiritual evolution, the finality of 
which will never be reached. 

The media of communication being hypothetically 
established, we should turn our attention to the 
modes of procedure which have been adopted by suc- 
cessful experimenters. 

I should say, first, that it is advisable to make the 
conditions of absent treatment correspond as closely 
as possible with those of 'present treatment. In any 
case the appeal is to the subconsciousness, and our 
chief concern should be to make the appeal when 
that subjective self is as little hampered and hin- 
dered by the consciousness as it can well be found. 
Could a patient be thrown into a profound hypnosis 
at a distance his subjective mind would then be put 
into an ideal receptive attitude. But this cannot 
often be done and I have no reason to regard the 
hypnotic state as eminently desirable for prolonged 
and oft-repeated treatment, even though it could be 
secured. 

Natural sleep is a state of receptivity, and one to 
be chosen when possible for most efficient work. 
There appears to be a unanimity of opinion con- 
cerning this point of detail. 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

When the hour of sleep cannot well be chosen, a 
definitely agreed-upon hour may be arranged, during 
which the patient should place himself in a receptive 
state by retiring into silence and divesting himself 
of thoughts that could divert the incoming sugges- 
tions. 

Some healers prefer to keep the patient in igno- 
rance of the hour of treatment, fearing that his prag- 
matic consciousness may unwittingly interpose 
obstacles to a free access of the transferred impres- 
sion. 

Certain operators deem it preferable to commission 
their own subconscious selves to do the work while 
they themselves are asleep. It is important for the 
physician to choose an hour when he will be least 
prone to disturbance and when he can uninterruptedly 
concentrate upon the work in hand. The more the 
sender is able to lose himself in the suggestive effort 
and the more vividly he can bring the ideal patient 
before his mental vision, the more 'pronounced the 
effect. During the deep loss of one's self in the 
mental concentration of an absent treatment the re- 
ceiver has been able to see the form of the sender as 
though his real self had been projected to a distance, 
having gone to do its assigned work. 

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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

The set formulas for distance treatment usually 
prescribe perfect quiet on the part of the transmitter, 
but I have not found this always advisable. Most 
frequently I stand or walk while giving such treat- 
ments, speaking aloud to my patient as though pres- 
ent. When giving self-suggestion I also find this 
method most satisfactory in its effects. 

Following Hudson's plan, a good but not always 
convenient method is that of giving explicit direc- 
tions to the subconsciousness just before going to 
sleep, in the belief that the True Self will better do 
the work while the objective consciousness of both are 
stilled by sleep. 

In bringing my telepathic methods as close to the 
character of present treatment as possible I have 
learned to place great reliance on certain adjuvants. 
In addressing one in our presence it should be re- 
membered that the thought is not only transferred 
from mind to mind independently of sense impres- 
sions, but we call to our assistance the aid of the 
ears, by means of which sounds expressing ideas are 
received and recorded, the record thus remaining in 
memory as a continual reminder. In distant treat- 
ment that aid is lost and we are deprived of the 

100 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

energy and perspicuity of the impression on the con- 
scious mind. To overcome in part the loss thus sus- 
tained should be our aim in absent treatment, and 
that it can be done I have demonstrated. 

But how? 

The methods of the various correspondence schools 
of the country serve our purpose very effectually. 
The healer should either keep up a regular corre- 
spondence with his patients at a distance or he should 
place his reliance for supplementary aid on printed 
lessons carefully prepared. I have thus far regarded 
it as far more satisfactory both to myself and patients 
to carry on a lively correspondence. To many healers 
this would be a most onerous task, but to me it is a 
real pleasure. This method keeps me in closer touch 
with my patients and reveals to me the flaws in their 
progress. I give and require at least one letter a 
week. 

I beg you not to be startled by my confession of a 
belief that the letters passing between people are 
charged with the thought energy of those who write 
them. If this is true the peculiar value of such means 
of communication between patient and physician at 
once becomes evident. Says Prof. John William 
Draper : 

101 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

"Upon the walls of our most private apartments, 
where we think the eye of intrusion is altogether shut 
out and our retirement can never be profaned, there 
exist the vestiges of all our acts, silhouettes of what- 
ever we have done." He might have added : "They 
also bear the records of our very thoughts." 

Admitting the truth of this, we cannot escape the 
conviction that things we handle and wear take on 
from us deep impressions. It is because of this 
entanglement of one's very atmosphere in the texture 
of these objects that the psychometrist is able to read 
from them so faithfully the character of those who 
have been associated with them. 



102 



SELF-HELP 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 



Letter XIV 



FOREWORD 

Dear Eeader : — 

We are coming now to the features of LEAVITT- 
SCIENCE which these letters are intended specially 
to elucidate. I have gone over the aspects of cure 
from the side of the physician with sufficient detail 
to give you a fair insight into the means at the phy- 
sician's command for the psychic healing of his pa- 
tients. It was essential for me to do so in order to 
bring out the diverse features of the process of cure, 
in a manner to convince you that, at their best, they 
are mere adjuvants to the real personal struggle 
which the ailing one has in every case to make. Now, 
in due order I shall show you how the principles can 
be made effective for self-help. 

All Cures Are Self Cures 

Let me say again, to obviate all chance of being 
misunderstood, that the curative process in every 
instance is wrought by the patient's own forces. The 
conflict takes place in the field of the patient's mind, 

104 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

and the energies brought into action are his own. 
Just as in war it is the common soldier who does 
the fighting, while it is the part of the general in 
charge to see that the soldier's energies are all en- 
gaged, and that they are given wise direction and 
encouragement, so in this conflict with disease it is 
the part of the patient to wrestle with the enemy, 
and that of the physician to see that every move is 
well taken and properly sustained. The physician 
of a superior type trains his clients in the art of 
attack and defense, but he supplies no large amount 
of energy beyond that of his personality. It is said 
that one of Napoleon's opponents admitted that his 
presence in battle was equal to 40,000 men. Not 
that his physical strength, or even his indomitable 
courage and skill counted for much except as stimu- 
lants to wise and efficient action on the part of his 
men. 

No army can make a successful fight without a 
leader, and it is also true that no patient can make 
a winning fight without an efficient director and 
helper. In both instances there has to be an author- 
ity, and I shall not be foolish enough to encourage 
you to believe that you or anybody else can wage a 

105 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

successful warfare against a strong foe without such 
a guide, teacher and advisor. 

But I hasten to assure you that the personal pres- 
ence of that leader is not essential in this struggle, 
as in the case of military strife, for the struggle is 
out of sight. It is in the depths of the soul, where 
communication does not depend altogether on sensory 
media. These letters, warm from experience, 

BASED UPON MUCH OBSERVATION AND RESEARCH, 
FULL OF PERSONAL MAGNETISM, AND CHARGED WITH 
THE ENTHUSIASM OF SUCCESS, WILL HAVE TO TAKE 
MY PLACE, AND YOU WILL FIND THEM DOING SO IN 
A MOST EFFECTIVE WAY. 

So now to a detailed study of self-help. 



106 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 



Letter XV 



SELF RE-EDUCATION 

School education is so defective in matters pertain- 
ing to personal, social and business life, that a vast 
amount of re-education has to be done to make one 
strong, self-reliant, considerate and energetic. Our 
present school system is developing young men of the 
feminine type, and our business system is producing 
young women who partake too freely of masculinity. 
Women teachers for boys and masculine trainers for 
girls is doing regrettable educational work. What 
the ultimate social effect will be I shall not here 
attempt to predict, but I am sure that the effect on 
health — especially the health of men — ris already per- 
nicious. To me it is clear that the biological require- 
ments are best met by making men rugged, resistant 
and resolute after the type of the ideal man, and by 
producing in women the counterparts of these male 
characteristics, so that there shall thus be suitable 
reenforcement of the essential male elements, and a 
completion of the whole man. Each sex plays its 
appointed part : the woman is first destined for man, 

107 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

and man is destined for society. Woman owes her- 
self to one, man owes himself to all, and each obtains 
happiness and health only as he or she recognizes this 
law and accepts this sex equipoise. The ideal sex 
characteristics must be maintained, or degeneracy will 
ensue. As soon as man, a people, an epoch becomes 
feminine in type it sinks in the scale of things. 

Boys ought to be trained by men in every mascu- 
line attribute, and to the absence of such training is 
in large measure attributable the prevalence of neu- 
rasthenias and other asthenic ailments and predisposi- 
tions. The push and struggle of modern business 
proves too much for underdeveloped men who try 
in vain to sustain their resistance and endurance by 
recourse to nerve stimulants of various kinds. 

In consequence of all this it becomes necessary for 
us to supply ourselves with a supplementary educa- 
tion and a liberal reeducation which shall give us 
the essentials of healthful living. Under former 
medical methods education and reeducation by the 
physician went no farther than prescribing hygienic 
rules of direct physical import; but now a few are 
attempting to go beyond this and supply instruction 
bearing indirectly on the physical, but concerning 

108 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

itself also with the psychical. In any efficient system 
of therapeutics the latter feature must take first rank. 
It is therefore evident that an application of the 
principles of psychotherapy includes the educational 
requirements. I beg you therefore not to attempt to 
administer your own treatment without first making 
yourself thoroughly acquainted with the conditions 
upon which success can safely be predicated. I am 
endeavoring to put into these letters all the essentials, 
but am doing it in so concise a way that you will 
have to read them more than once or twice. They 
ought to be consulted every day, so that the ideas they 
contain shall become indelibly impressed. The ma- 
terial supplied by them requires not only to be pre- 
sented to the mind, but it has to become incorporated 
into the habitual mental processes. 

I have been interrupted while writing this by a 
six-foot, ruddy-faced, intelligent man from the Pa- 
cific coast who called to tell me how much these prin- 
ciples of self-help had done for him. From being an 
ambitionless, ailing, inefficient man he has become 
transformed within a few years into an earnest, aspir- 
ing, well and prosperous one, and all without the aid 
of aught besides the written instructions obtained 
from my writings. 

109 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

We have to learn how to cope with the difficulties 
and dangers of onr mental and physical life, and, 
having once learned, then we have to proceed with 
purpose and courage to do what is required, no mat- 
ter how onerous the task. To those who follow so 
wise a course the door of attainment stands wide open. 



no 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 



Letter XVI 

SELF-PERSUASION 

Those who study morbid phenomena carefully do 
not fail to remark the evidences of intelligence be- 
hind the symptoms. This is more especially true of 
those symptoms due to mental or nervous disturbance, 
and is most noticable in those phenomena termed 
hysterical. There are traces of the same thing in all 
forms of disease manifestation. In certain nervous 
states which present no evidences of true insanity, 
the patient experiences a sense of duality. There is 
a feeling of "another fellow" within him who some- 
times aims to retain the primary self under his power, 
and who puts forth all sorts of arguments to contro- 
vert the patient's hope of emancipation. On one side 
of his nature the subject may be convinced that he 
ought to follow a course which he has reason to be- 
lieve will bring him relief; then something within 
him takes an opposite view and tries to dissuade him 
from following it. The dispute sometimes waxes 
warm, until one side or the other is temporarily 
silenced. Every hysteric is conscious of such a dual- 
Ill 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

ity. She recognizes her peculiarities and is aware 
of her deceits and sophistries, but feels herself un- 
able to resist them. The other self takes possession 
of her will and bends it to other doing. Until some 
stronger emotion has grown dominant and stimulates 
her to consistent action she may be so under the power 
of the spell that she makes but little resistance to 
it, so useless does a contrary course seem to her. In 
his treatment of nervous disorders the physician is a 
witness of the clever way in which symptoms appear 
and disappear, often masquerading in a manner cal- 
culated to deceive the most astute and alert. 

Dissociation of Parts 

To some keen observers it has become evident that 
these phenomena are due to a dissociate action of con- 
crete groups of brain and nerve cells, or in certain 
marked instances to an independent action of certain 
organs or functions. These split-off sections of the 
composite self assume roles of intelligent personali- 
ties, the symptoms being less pronounced than in ex- 
amples of secondary personality, though of the same 
general character. In the latter instance the split-off 
segment embraces a large enough mass temporarily to 
usurp control of the consciousness. 

112 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

This is a startling revelation to those who have 
no knowledge of the composite nature of both mind 
and body. Every human being is made up of a large 
number of lesser selves which are allied into a sort 
of federation. There are the individual cells, each 
of which is a little intelligence. These cells are 
grouped into organs and systems wherein they become 
differentiated according to the character of the work 
to be done by them. In the brain and nervous sys- 
tem, the cells of which have been trained for the high- 
est order of service, there is a still finer differentia- 
tion, making possible the performance of the most 
remarkable intellectual stunts. So now you can see, 
as well as I, that, in such a complex association of 
intelligent parts, in the absence of the strongest sort 
of control at the great center of authority in the brain, 
splits may occur and fractional action be set up. 
And this is just what does occur in morbid states of 
the human organism. We are safe only when there 
is unitary, coordinate, concurrent action of all the 
parts, and it should ever be the problem of medicine 
to reestablish and maintain the integrity of this com- 
posite organization. 

So then, looking at disease from such an angle, 
you can see that, when it is the purpose to accomplish 

113 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

the object just named, persuasion has an important 
part to act. The subject's problem is to bring back 
into loyal action that part of himself which has 
seceded, and, since consciousness is not suspended 
or seriously modified in the minor instances of dis- 
sociation, he is in a position to argue the points at 
issue and to use to advantage his most artful persua- 
sions. Like a loyal official, he appeals to the recal- 
citrant's sense of pride in the proposed reorganiza- 
tion, and to his sense of duty. He holds before his 
perception the advantages to be derived from unity 
of action, and otherwise labors to accomplish the de- 
sired purpose. 

Auto-Suggestions 

In doing this he summons to his aid suggestions 
like those which follow. The most encouraging feat- 
ure of the effort is the fact that good results do not 
appear to be dependent on the reliability of the 
theories upon which they are sought. No matter what 
the interpretation of the modus by wMch effects are 
produced there is usually a response to the oft-re- 
peated suggestions offered. 

I insist that this whole organism shall operate as 
a unit. 

114 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

I refuse longer to be queered by the dissociate 
action that has been going on. 

Every cell of my brain and nervous systems shall 
do its work in perfect harmony and coordination with 
every other cell. 

My demand is that the various organs and systems 
of my body shall work as a unit in response to the 
sundry demands of the brain and nerve centers. I 
shall tolerate no faction, no schism anywhere. 

Just how such a result is to be accomplished, con- 
sciously, I do not know. But I know subconsciously, 
and insist that the necessary changes be made to 
bring it about. 

I have gone over with myself the disadvantages 
of a divided organism, have seen the need of unitary 
action as a condition to health, happiness and effi- 
ciency, and I now deliberately press upon my efficient 
subconsciousness the demand for aggregate and co- 
ordinate action. 

This attitude is not due to a whim or caprice, but 
to a settled conviction from which I shall not recede. 

United I stand; divided I fall. 

I am sure that I shall receive a complaisant re- 
sponse to my persuasive efforts. 

115 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 



Letter XVII 



AUTO-SUGGESTION 

Auto-suggestion is far more comprehensive thai) 
is commonly supposed. It is a term which has come 
into use during recent years, and its full significa- 
tion is not generally understood. Every thought, 
every idea, every concept, in a Broad sense is a self- 
suggestion. How could it he otherwise in view of 
the fact that every thought, and idea, and concept 
tends to embody itself in some form of physical ex- 
pression ? That it does so is now held to be a funda- 
mental psychological truth. 

You are not surprised, then, when I say that the 
value of systematic auto-suggestion is very great. In 
a general way it is popularly known to be of service, 
and at the same time its practical benefits are neg- 
lected. It can be made of greater service as a means 
of cure than anything else in our whole psychological 
armamentarium. 

To show yourself something of the power of mental 
suggestion, make the following experiment: Stand 

116 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

erect with the eyes closed, your feet close together 
and the mind in a state of detachment from absorb- 
ing thought, and then deliberately say aloud to your- 
self, "I am falling forwards ! I am falling forwards !" 
or "I am falling backwards !" and you will find your- 
self swaying in an indicated direction so that you 
will have to catch yourself by some exercise of your 
will. One who is peculiarly sensitive to suggestion 
would better practice this in a sitting posture so as 
to avoid a possible fall, as the effect is often pro- 
nounced. This experiment is only an illustration of 
the power of auto-suggestion. In the same way many 
people can put themselves into the hypnotic state. 
Insomnia can often be overcome by the sufferer say- 
ing to himself before retiring, "I shall go asleep 
promptly tonight on going to bed." This ought to 
be repeated a number of times in a quiet way. Then, 
on getting into bed and composing himself, he should 
say, "Wakefulness has lost its power over me. I am 
going asleep right now. There I go! There I go! 
I am going asleep. I am going asleep. Fast asleep. 
I am going a-s-1-e-e-p." Try this. It can do you 
no harm. You need not fear to put yourself asleep 
at any time. If you designate the length of the sleep 
in advance you will find yourself obedient. We can 

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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

do almost anything with these bodies of ours by 
operating in this way through the energy of sugges- 
tion. 

It is a means of self-help to be practiced in- 
telligently and faithfully. The subjective energies 
are conservative. They yield only to iteration and 
reiteration. Whims and caprices are given no heed. 
It is only when it becomes evident to the authorities 
in charge of vital action that we are determined to 
have a change in the operative details — it is only 
then, I say, that they set themselves to make them. 

To get the best effects it is important to be as 
solitary and serious as one is about one's private 
prayer. He should "enter into his closet/' and it is 
only when he has done so, literally as well as figura- 
tively, and has "shut the door," that he should pro- 
ceed to deal suggestively with the problems and de- 
sires he has borne thither. And then it should be as 
though the true self — the real entity, that self not 
embraced altogether between one's hat and shoes — 
were being addressed. For it is that deeper self that 
is in charge of all the organic processes. 

Manner of Giving Auto-Suggestion 

The attitude ought to be positive, rather than nega- 
lis 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

tive, in giving the suggestions. It is the attitude of 
authority. We do not have to beg for what we want. 
We have been set up by the Larger Authority for a 
purpose, and it is perfectly becoming in us to issue 
our orders and make our requisitions. In this respect 
the act differs from prayer, as commonly made. There 
are times when we rightly assume the negative atti- 
tude and open our hearts and minds to an infilling; 
but this is not one of them. And this negative atti- 
tude ought not to be assumed towards anything but 
the Great Mind. We have a right to assume author- 
ity over all the activities of our organism. The body 
is our servant and not our master, and ought to be 
treated as such. 

For these reasons we need not fear being too 
strenuous or insistant in our demands. There need 
be no vociferation, no wild gesticulation, for these 
indicate an emotion bordering on fear; but there 
must be the deepest earnestness, and no harm can 
come from assuming the physical aspects and atti- 
tudes indicative of resolute purpose and positive 
power. 

The frequency of these interviews with the self 
will be governed by the urgency of the case and the 

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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

nature of the situation. A concerted and relentless 
assault is some times in order. Under ordinary cir- 
cumstances of chronic disorder it is well to have two 
such periods daily, lasting fifteen or twenty minutes 
each. 

And here let me caution you against spasmodic 
enthusiasm. It is useless to look for good results 
from unsteady and purposeless treatment. Do not 
get the idea that the true state of your conscious 
mind is unknown to the subconscious. You may 
deceive your conscious self, but you are well known 
to that Deeper Self to which you are making appeal. 
You would better not undertake treatment at all than 
to begin it as a mere experiment. Be fully persuaded 
of its advantages before beginning, and, having once 
begun, stay by until you win. 

And you will have to do something more than sug- 
gest twice a day. Much time must be given to study 
of the things which make for development of your 
mental and physical powers. The temper of the 
mind has to be sustained by quiet reading of litera- 
ture bearing upon high and strong living. Much of 
the E~ew Thought literature is mere twaddle, and 
many of its authors are meaningless personalities. 

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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

On the other hand, among authors there are men and 
women of character, real stalwarts. Feel at liberty 
to ask me for a list of books of the kind I allude to. 
If you are into this undertaking in earnest, prove 
it by your resolute conduct. I want to save you from 
the influence of certain utter failures who pose as 
advisors, and from physical wrecks who presume to 
point out the way to health. Young men who have 
not yet begun a serious struggle with physical beset- 
ments, and who are ignorant of physiological facts, 
masquerade as teachers of the way to live forever. 
There are "healers" in the psychic field whose pa- 
tients all told could be counted on the fingers of two 
hands. Shun the teachings of such and pin your 
faith to men and women of large observation. 

In making your suggestions remember that it is 
the repetition of the suggestion again and again, and, 
if possible, with growing earnestness, that brings the 
results you seek. At each treatment repeat it several 
times over, with strong and increasing emphasis and 
tension. Focus on the act all your mental powers. 

Aim to give the suggestions in tones that can be 
heard, for there is an advantage in this practice not 
at first apparent. Your success may depend on a 

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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

concentration of your forces. It is desirous to im- 
press the conscious as well as the unconscious self. 
When you utter the suggestions they are recorded in 
the auditory memory, and if you read them over they 
become fastened in the visual field of memory, where 
in both instances they remain as continual reminders 
to the subconsciousness. 

Results 

Now a word as to results. I advise you to go about 
the undertaking with a resolute spirit, and to regard 
it as no experiment. Avoid a disposition to give a 
treatment or two and then look for marvelous effects 
from it. You may get them, but if you do they are 
very sure to be but temporary. The hind of effect 
that stays is that which comes slowly. Remember 
that the changes you seek are usually radical. The 
whole man has to be changed. It is a regeneration. 
Then, too, instead of getting agreeable effects at once, 
you may get disagreeable ones, arising from an 
attempted breaking up of old, established conditions. 
The organism resents innovations. Besides, you will 
find the natural rise and fall, the action and reaction, 
becoming more noticeable, and you may get a re- 
action at the very start. But do not be discouraged 

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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

by such symptoms. They are indicative of good. 
You will be better and worse for a considerable time, 
but on a gradually rising plane of experience, until, 
at last, if you are faithful, you will arrive. Be 
strong and of good courage ! Let your motto be, "I 
can and I will!" 

Auto-Suggestions 

Here are a few suggestions of general import : 

I believe that the very desire for health burning 
within me is a guaranty of its realization. It can- 
not be that I am longing so strongly for something 
I cannot have. 

While I believe that all I need is obtainable, I 
realize that it will not be thrust upon me. I must 
rise and take it, and this I purpose doing with energy 
and perseverance. 

It is only through faith that I can appropriate, 
and I accordingly stir my slumbering confidence and 
reach out boldly. I am aroused by a flash of the 
will that can. 

Have I pain or other physical distress ? Am I 
carrying about a body that troubles and disconcerts ? 

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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

This need not be so, for it is only as these things get 
possession of my attention that I fall under the power 
of them. I mean now to demonstrate that I am 
master. I refuse to he under the power of anything. 
I shall go about my work and play as though there 
were nothing to trouble me. By thus ignoring my 
would-be distresses I shall conquer them. They are 
but strengthened by recognition. I shall only dignify 
them by fighting them. So I shall fight merely to 
make myself act as though they were not in my vicin- 
ity. I am really on my way to victory. I shall surely 
triumph. 

Faith is not only a mental conviction, but it is an 
emotion. Emotional faith is all-compelling. For 
this reason I stir up my energies, my ambitions, my 
feelings, my purposes. I go forth to storm the King- 
dom and to bring back what I need. I am trusting 
as though all depended on God, and acting as though 
all depended on me. 

It is easy to say, "I believe"; but that is not 
enough. I must believe so fully that every act shall 
harmonize with my affirmations. I must show my 
faith by what I do, and then there shall be no nega- 
tive or inharmonious note in the chord. 

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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

Does faith seem dead from lack of emotional life ? 
Then my only hope of getting more of either is 
through use of all of it I have. Development can 
come in no other way. So now I go about the effort 
with renewed courage. 

I can and do erect about me, by my very faith, a 
wall of protection against unwholesome influences. 
No harm can come near me. 

I appreciate a need of present faith. It is not 
enough to say, "It will be done." Accordingly I 
assume the attitude of present possession. At the 
centers the necessary changes have been wrought. It 
may take some time for them to work out into ex- 
pression, and that time will be long or short as my 
attitudes are inconsistent or consistent. 

I do believe! I do believe! I shall no longer 
question. I shall walk by faith and not by sight. 



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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

Letter XVIII 



PSYCHOANALYSIS BY THE SELF 

While psychoanalysis as employed by the special- 
ists is inapplicable to self-treatment, it can be made 

to do good service by adopting some modifications. 
i 
Before explaining its use let me clear the ground 

by calling your attention to the fear which induces 
nervous, apprehensive people to hold their minds aloof 
from their distresses, and to avoid meeting the ques- 
tion of the nature of the disorders, and the excuse 
for the existence of the distresses from which they 
suffer. They dread all allusion to the topic; and 
cannot endure to give attention to a recital of the 
experiences of others, unless assured in advance of 
the encouraging nature of the incident to be related. 
Like children they bury their faces and close their 
eyes for fear that they shall see some frightful object. 
We have learned that the strong way is always the 
best way, and it will soon become the comfortable 
way for those who follow it resolutely ; and that this 
general principle of action applies with peculiar fit- 
ness to the treatment of disease. As long as one is 

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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

acting a negative part, dodging about like a startled 
rabbit before every freshly awakened fear, the dis- 
tresses incident to the disorder will continue in full 
force. We have to learn to face our fears with cour- 
age if we expect to rout them. 

One more preliminary consideration and then I 
shall bring to you the practical features of self -treat- 
ment by psychoanalysis. It concerns the recognized 
fact that an analytical study of anything removes in 
large measure its formidable or forbidding aspects. 
It is the vision of an object in its composite form, 
with no knowledge of the particulars of its structure, 
that gives it awe-inspiring powers. Even a new 
science, when seen as a whole, looks hard. Its terms, 
and phrases, and involved statements, and explana- 
tions make its comprehension look doubtful; but 
when we take it up in parts, studing it analytically, 
there is no serious difficulty met in its mastery. 

In a somewhat similar way are we impressed by 
our disorders, and in like manner may we break 
down their formidability. So it is to an analytical 
study of your distresses of whatever sort that I shall 
now introduce you. I shall encourage you to take 
them up one by one, turn them over, look at them 

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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

from all sides and then pick them to pieces. Your 
fear is what has clothed them with terrors that do 
not belong to them, as you will see when once you 
apply to them analytic treatment. By the law of 
association of ideas, objects, locations, persons, colors, 
hours, seasons, and even ideas have become tinctured 
with a peculiar suggestive power, so that at every 
turn you are reminded of your distresses. Over these 
you are to go with your analytical thought at inter- 
vals until they have lost their power to distress. In 
short, you will courageously take up and so unrelent- 
ingly deal with every aspect of your mental and 
physical ailments that they shall lose their ability 
longer to make you afraid. 

An Example of Its Application 

Then let us make a practical application of this 
process. We shall suppose that you are suffering 
from one of the psychoneuroses so prevalent in these 
days of diminished mental and physical vigor, and 
that one of your most distressing symptoms is in- 
somnia. This is one of the common and distracting 
complaints of nervous people, and yet one that can 
be relieved with the greatest certainty. 

Look at it first from the historical side. It has 

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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

troubled you at intervals for several months, and 
your anxiety has increased as the weeks have passed. 
You lie awake for an hour or two at a time, or you 
waken so often that it seems as though you hardly 
sleep at all. Ask yourself how many hours at a time 
you have slept during the previous week. You find 
the nightly totals differ considerably, but that your 
tendency is to take the minimum periods as examples 
of the general average. But you set resolutely at 
work to figure up the totals. 

On the first night, when you come rationally and 
resolutely to make an accurate computation, you find 
that you probably slept six hours. 

On the second you did not do so well. Altogether 
your estimated naps make a total of only five hours. 
But even that is more than you supposed. 

On the third you slept seven hours, though you lay 
awake for at least an hour towards morning, with 
your mind full of thought. 

On the fourth you dropped back an hour, sleeping 
only six hours. 

On the fifth you had one of your fairly good 
nights, the total being eight hours. 

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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

On the sixth you got six hours, and 

On the seventh only five, and, possibly, a half. 

The total for the week amounts to forty-three and 
a half hours, or an average of more than six hours a 
night. 

A T ow you reflect that, had some one asked you to 
state how many hours a night you had slept, the feel- 
ing-tone accompanying the situation is so strong that 
you would have said, "Oh, not more than three or 
( four hours." 

"Six hours or more a night," you now say to your- 
self. "That's not so bad, after all! I'm surprised." 
And then you go on reasoning with yourself, "There 
are many getting less sleep than that who look well 
and happy. There is Edison, who never sleeps more 
than five hours a night, and yet he works much harder 
than I do. I have often heard that sleep is largely a 
matter of habit. I may have slept more than was 
necessary in the past. Anyhow, I don't feel sleepy 
during the day, as I naturally should were I not get- 
ting enough sleep. It must be that I've grown a bit 
morbid over this thing. I read in a very sensible book 
the other day that the greatest harm done by short 

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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

hours of sleep is the fear of harm which they 
engender." 

Then you take up the distress side of the wakeful- 
ness. "Why should I be distressed?" you ask. "Is 
it such a dreadful thing to be alone with one's 
thoughts? Why should I dread the wakeful hours 
so much ? Am I not making a foolish bugbear out of 
a harmless experience ? Am I a coward ? Should I 
not welcome a quiet period of thought? I am not 
willing to admit that I am not master of my 
thought — that I cannot manage my own mind. I 
may not be having very happy experiences during 
these days, but it makes them worse to think so much 
about them. Hereafter I shall look without dread 
on these wakeful moments, but will turn them to good 
account when they come. I am told that it is fear of 
not sleeping that keeps me awake, and I believe it. 
I shall no longer fear. Why not take a sensible 
course ? !Now that I come to look at the matter from 
a rational viewpoint I am resolved to worry about it 
no more." 

This is only a simple example of what may be done 
with any symptom. In all nervous troubles there is 
an hysterical exaggeration of all the suffering. We 

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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

may not see it at the moment, but it is there. There 
is not a situation in life which cannot be relieved of 
much of its distress by means of a thoughtful and 
honest analysis. I know how hard it is to bend the 
mind to the task, as we are so filled with self pity; 
but I am now addressing those who are earnest 
enough to do whatever task is set before them in order 
to get their freedom. 



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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 



Letter XIX 



COMMANDING THE SELF 

If the body were only a machine of the automobile 
type, as some appear to regard it, it would be absurd 
to speak of self-command. But the theorem I hold 
regards the physical as a mere instrument of mind — 
a mode of demonstrating energy that cannot be fully 
expressed in material terms. 

The hidden nature of this energy, and the startling 
character of the phenomena to which it gives rise, 
have so mystified and awed men that they have hesi- 
tated even to attempt to give this remarkable force 
direction. The church has pronounced it a sacrilege. 
But men are growing unafraid. In recent years 
science has led the way into fields theretofore walled 
in by a great taboo, a thing it would not have dared 
to do had not a few intrepid men, brushing aside all 
traditions and restraints, pushed resolutely onwards, 
rasolved on penetrating the great unexplored. 

This kind of work has its imperfections. It seemed 
necessary for these students, that they might carry 

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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

out their purposes, to assume a materialism which has 
clung to science more or less tenaciously to this day. 
But a spiritual element is entering whieh is bound to 
open up broadly the unseen and intangible side of 
life and raise man to an exalted place in the universal 
order. He is possessed of power over himself and 
things, of which we have not till now had more than 
an intimation. Evidently it is a knowledge of this 
that aids in turning the thought and faith of the 
people from the church which has always been a drag 
on inquiring minds and an opponent of innovations 
in their early stages. 

Surely man is coming to his rightful place in the 
world, the place of master. He has been subjugating 
the material world to his needs, and now he is study- 
ing the terra incognita of self with a view to making 
it, with all its princely powers, subject to the direc- 
tion of his conscious will. I have told you how these 
mental energies are being turned by a small number 
of physicians to the healing of physical ills, and have 
adverted to command as one of the important meas- 
ures ; and now it is my purpose to show you how you 
can utilize command in the practice of self-help. 

You can command your own body in a way to 

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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

insure orderly behavior of all the functions and thus 
insure to yourself the health for which you have 
longed. It is the highest order of therapeutic help, 
and one to which you can expect to attain only as the 
result of prolonged psychic development. There are 
some who unconsciously have been ripening for such 
experience, but they are exceptional. You may be 
one of them. There is now and then a master mind 
to be found among the untrained. There are a few 
with faith so large and unequivocal that they need 
only to be awakened to a truth and given a word of 
instruction regarding its application to make them 
facile in its use. 

Then begin at once to see what you can do for your- 
self in this direct way. Proceed to order out the 
devils of disorder by which you have been obsessed. 
They are there only because you have been ignorant 
of them or afraid to try your powers on them. 
They have remained through your suff ranee, and they 
must remain no longer. You shall have to speak as 
one having authority. Remember that you are ad- 
dressing a high order of intelligence and one capable 
of recognizing insincerity, caprice and subterfuge; 
that you are seeking to break up an order of action 

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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

established by long years of habit ; and that the sub- 
conscious forces, while amenable to suggestion and 
command when the conditions are right, are 
inattentive to innovators who do not present reliable 
credentials. Should your early essays fail, this is 
no occasion for discouragement. What you have un- 
dertaken is radical, and for a hearing of so unusual 
a nature you may find it hard to obtain an audience. 
But if you are persistent, as was the applicant in the 
parable of "The Unjust Judge," you cannot fail. 
Storm the portals of the subjective realm and do not 
give over until you obtain the assurance you seek. 
Make your demands and issue your orders. Be not 
weary in well doing. Insist, and insist again, until 
the number reaches "seventy times seven," if need be. 
Such assaults are irresistible. How few make them 
the millions of earth's wretched ones clearly witness. 

Self-Commands 

Let me give you a few sample commands. You 
will observe that the object of the authoritative com- 
mand is sometimes the self and at other times the 
disorders. Give them seriously, earnestly, and faith- 
fully. 

I refuse longer to endure the suffering incident to 

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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

disorder, and I therefore demand that chaos become 
cosmos. 

This is my body. Why should the master of the 
house submit to these disagreeable invasions I I 
shall not. So now, my disturbers, I resolutely show 
you the door. 

I have patiently endured my suffering in the past 
under the supposition that I was helpless. But I 
find that I have ample authority, and so I demand 
that discomforts cease. 

At one time, Pain, I owned you in control. Xow I 
deny your authority and bid you begone. 

You smile at my credulity ? Smile if you will, but 
I have power. "All things are possible to him who 
believeth." 

You have felt very much at home ? Well, I shall 
no longer give you entertainment. You have worn 
out your welcome. Let us part. 

Suffering, you look more serious. You begin to 
understand that I am very much in earnest. I am. 

Body, you are mine. I am in authority over you. 
The real I is not visible, but is powerful. You are 

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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

my servant. Then why should you be so self-assert- 
ive ? I demand obedience. You have been behaving 
badly. You have given me great inconvenience and 
discomfort through your lax ways. Now ginger up 
and do your work well. Quell this disorder. Stop 
this frantic pain. Cease blocking the channels of 
life. I flood you with energy. I let in the light. I 
stimulate your drooping energies. I whip up your 
lazy functions. I equalize the distribution of your 
fluids, and give your emunctories more life. Let us 
have a new order of things, for your good and mine. 
You need more efficiency. You should better express 
me. I want to find in you a perfect instrument ; and 
I shall. 

How I am and what I am I know not; but I feel 
the spirit of Life stirring within me. I sense my 
authority. I have come to realization. I am one 
with the Cosmos. 

Having given your orders, expect obedience. Mag- 
nify every sign of improvement and minimize every 
indication of aggravation. Be not discouraged be- 
cause obedience is not immediate and complete. In- 
sist, and insist again. At last you will succeed. 



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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 



Letter XX 



HOLDING THE IDEAL 

IsTo matter by whom treated the ailing one's prog- 
ress is bound to be indifferent until the imagination 
is called into the case and forms in the mind of the 
patient a picture of himself as he would like to be. 
The power of an ideal cannot be overestimated. "The 
secret of mental alchemy," says one, "may be stated 
as consisting, first, last and always, of the art of 
Mental Imaging, reinforced by the will." See your- 
self as you wish to be. See others as you wish them 
to be. See conditions also as you wish them to be. 
Then around these visualized ideals the material 
realities will form and crystallize. It is in this way 
that everything worth while comes into being. It is 
born first on the immaterial plane, after which it 
comes into form in a way impressive to the senses. 

One who is ill lives with his discomforts so con- 
stantly that they become a part of every state of con- 
sciousness and enter into the details of every view of 
self. Imagination is supplied with colors for every 
picture it paints, taken from the palette of somber 

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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

nuances. Doubt, discouragement and pain find free 
expression. The sufferer's fancy always represents 
him as the very antithesis of what he longs to be, and 
the operation of psychic laws aggravates rather than 
ameliorates his condition. The intricacies of the 
complex become more pronounced; and, as the case 
progresses, they create a bewildering tangle. 

In order to overcome the tendency to deeper in- 
tensity and hopeless entanglement set up by such a 
situation, special effort and unremitting vigilance are 
required to keep the mind's picture, gallery so well 
censored that its specific effect upon the disorder shall 
be reformative. Any such effect is sure to grow 
monotonous and requires to be resolutely followed 
until the necessary modifications have been made. 

It must not be thought that a few moments a day 
given to this visualizing ought to produce marked and 
immediate effects. This subself of ours is highly con- 
servative and cannot be induced to institute radical 
changes in our physical condition by a brief and luke- 
warm reform campaign. And yet it is quick to catch 
the spirit of improvement from a consciousness giving 
promise of a hot, a vigorous, and an unrelenting 
purpose. 

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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

It is by such a process of repeated and clear visual- 
izing, conducted under direction of the will, that the 
mind at last is so ordered in its constructive tendency 
that it instinctively recalls to the consciousness the 
ideal which has been laboriously formed. ~Not till 
that stage has been reached are the radical and last- 
ing innovations brought to maturity, though the power 
over the patient of the distresses associated with the 
morbid state will much sooner have yielded to the 
molding and refashioning process going on. 

The imagination is more active in one than in an- 
other. The true artist is able to see his mental crea- 
tions in their details, and all he has to do is to trans- 
fer them to his canvas, or to chip away the marble 
and release the imprisoned figure, and thus bring 
into sensible expression the creations of his genius. 
In forming the ideal self the man or woman whose 
imaginative faculties are strongest has a certain ad- 
vantage over his or her fellows. But in every one 
the power to form ideal figures is great enough to 
serve a sufficient purpose. Much of the work can be 
done to advantage by bringing to your aid the descrip- 
tive power of language. Credit the ideal with every 
trait that you would like to see developed. Give it a 
cheerful countenance with a flush of health, a bright 

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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

eye, an erect and well-formed figure, a noble, graceful 
and strong bearing, with accompanying agility, con- 
fidence and poise. Describe yourself under the vari- 
ous conditions of life and in the kind of environment 
you most desire. 

The practical value of such work as this cannot 
well be overstated. 



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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 



Letter XXI 



DEEP BREATHING 

There are many good reasons for the practice of 
deep breathing, a few of which I shall mention. 

Abundance of Air Essential 

Abundance of good air is as essential to health as 
are food and drink. This is a truism, you say ; and 
so it is. Under ordinary conditions we probably get 
it; but it will be remembered that we are now con- 
sidering conditions that are extraordinary. The nor- 
mal man is able to adjust himself to the various 
vicissitudes of life, and in this power is displayed 
the abundant life that fills him. But this is not true 
of one in whom the natural forces have become dis- 
turbed. In such an one there is a loss of balanoe 
between the functions, and the organism may suffer 
from deficient supply of the essential elements with- 
out the fact appealing directly to his consciousness. 
One may be getting too little Mood aeration without 
knowing it. 

Having learned from research work that the supply 

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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

of oxygen in abundance is essential to health, we have 
jumped to the conclusion that oxygen supply is the 
chiefest need met by the respiratory action. Of 
course it is known that the exhalations bear away 
from the body certain end products of organic 
metabolism, as, for example, carbon dioxide, which 
would otherwise poison the system; but, reasoning 
from analogy, we cannot escape the conviction that 
there are important chemical elements, of which we 
have no definite knowledge, taken in and carried out 
by the process of breathing. There are those who 
teach that there are certain subtle ethers supplied to 
the organism in inspiration which no chemist will 
ever be able to detect, but which are of the highest 
value to the finer functions of the organism. 

Special Ill-Effects of Lazy Breathing 

Functional activity of a part brings to it increased 
supplies of the life-giving elements. Lazy breathing 
not only fails to give the blood in general its adequate 
supplies, but it tends to weaken the energy of the pul- 
monary structures themselves. The chiefest reason 
why the subject of incipient lung tuberculosis finds 
help in the higher altitudes is that the rare atmos- 

144 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

phere necessitates more frequent respirations and 
deeper breathing, which of themselves tend to stir up 
greater life in the lung structures. 

In the ill organism there is a spirit of indifference 
set up which is a potent cause of further disturbance, 
and this indifference shows its effects primarily upon 
the great life functions of digestion and respiration. 
I mention this only to make clearer to you the need 
so often found in disease states for a much larger 
supply of atmospheric air. 

The Suggestive Effect 

The systematic practice of deep breathing is to be 
encouraged for still another reason, and that is related 
to its suggestive effects. Whenever we do anything 
with the thought that it is a serviceable act we derive 
a pronounced psychic benefit. The character of 
thought accompanying an act always settles its effect 
upon the organism. Thought is the energizing prin- 
ciple in the practice of exercises of all sorts. The 
assuring thought of developing strength which goes 
with rightly-conducted physical training is of greater 
value than the mere muscular contractions. It is 
even possible to think strength into the muscles by 
merely imagining muscular action. 

145 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

Exercises in Deep Breathing 

For the practice of deep breathing choose a place 
where there is an abundance of fresh air. 

If the sitting position is chosen, sit erect, and, 
unless very weak, have the back free from support. 
If confined to the bed, take the back position. Those 
who sleep in the open air can take their exercises to 
advantage in bed, after retiring and before rising. 

The amount of deep breathing practiced should be 
regulated by the patient's condition. The only harm 
to come from overindulgence arises from the physical 
exertion involved. One who is very weak should pro- 
ceed with caution, taking only a few deep breaths at 
a time, and giving long intervals of rest. In any 
case the practice is likely to accelerate the heart 
action, as the extra air supply is stimulating, and the 
exertion will naturally produce more rapid heart pul- 
sations. When the practice is first undertaken by 
sensitive people there is sometimes produced a slight 
giddiness owing to the augmented supply of blood to 
the brain. In such a case frequent rests between 
breaths are advisable. 

One effect of the exercises to be given is the induc- 
tion of a habit of better breathing. Whenever the 

146 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

mind recurs to the subject an effort should be made 
to encourage the habit so as to make it at last a part 
of the ordinary life action. 

In explanation of the significance of the alternate 
use of the nostrils and of the varying periods of in- 
halation, retention and exhalation, about to be recom- 
mended, I shall only say that the practice tends to 
favor concentration on the act, develops self-com- 
mand, and serves a good purpose in other ways. But 
there are said to be other good reasons for strict at- 
tention to such details — reasons of an occult sort. I 
am disposed to lay considerable emphasis on the 
details. Patients will therefore be sure to follow the 
exercises in every particular. 

Exercise 1. With a timepiece before you, inhale 
a breath lasting for ten seconds, and then exhale it 
for a period of fifteen seconds. 

Use this exercise alone for the first day, and give 
as much time to it as the physical conditions justify. 

If a timepiece is not at hand, count the seconds 
mentally as nearly as you can. 

Exercise 2. Inhale for a period of fifteen seconds 
and exhale for ten seconds. 

147 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

This will answer for the second day. 

Exercise 3. Inhale for ten seconds, hold the 
breath for five seconds, and then exhale for ten 
seconds. 

This will suffice foi the third day's work. 

Exercise 4. Inhale for ten seconds through the 
left nostril, the other being held, and exhale for fifteen 
seconds through the right nostril. Take the second 
breath through the right nostril and exhale it through 
the left. Alternate backwards and forth throughout 
the exercise. 

This will do for the fourth day. 

Exercise 5. Inhale for ten seconds through first 
the left and then the right nostril, holding the breath 
for five seconds in every instance, and exhale through 
first the right and then the left nostril. 

This will answer for the fifth day. 

Exercise 6. Inhale for eight seconds through 
first the left and then the right nostril, hold the breath 
for ten seconds, and exhale through first the right and 
then the left nostril. 

Let this answer for the sixth day. 

148 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

Exercise 7. Inhale for eight seconds through 
first the left and then the right nostril, hold the breath 
for fifteen seconds and then exhale through first the 
right and then the left nostril. 

This will be all for the seventh day. 

Having thus completed the first seven-day course, 
go over the same exercises in the same way for an- 
other seven days, and so on. 

Practice the exercises indefinitely, or at least until 
you have fully recovered. The tendency is to become 
remiss after a few days or a few weeks, but remember 
that your very pertinacity of purpose will add much 
to your whole mental tone. 



149 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 



Letter XXII 



PHYSICAL EXERCISES 

There is no mental or physical power that we can 
afford to neglect. Continued strength of a part is 
conditioned upon its exercise. Let it fall into 
desuetude and it will soon lapse into weakness. If 
we would be well we must keep active at every point. 
It is true that exercise of our powers does not need to 
be up to their limit of endurance one day after an- 
other for protracted periods, and it is equally true 
that exercise of one part should not be out of all pro- 
portion to others, as it is of great importance that due 
mental and physical balance be maintained. The 
secret of most effectual rest is found in diversity of 
exercise rather than in much exercise of certain parts 
and then complete rest of all. 

There is no doubt that the amount and character of 
exercise should be conditioned by a variety of circum- 
stances, such as age, sex, temperament, hereditary 
tendencies, state of health, and previous manner of 
living. Youth can endure muscular strain far better 
than age because it is in the daily practice of much 

150 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

greater activity and its tissues are better able to react 
to stimulation. At the same time there are certain 
forms of exercise admirably calculated to develop and 
hold in functional health the physical structures 
which can be used to advantage by all who are not 
suffering seriously from the effects of some grave 
lesion. One may have to begin very moderately, but 
by doing so even the aged can gradually build up a 
good degree of physical endurance and vigor. In the 
exercises which follow I have aimed to introduce 
nothing that to those to whom these pages shall appeal 
can prove other than helpful. 

As it would be inadvisable for a patient to under- 
take all the seventeen exercises in a single day, I 
recommend that the full list be gone over every week, 
giving three exercises to each week day, except the 
first. During the first week go through each exercise 
once; during the second week, twice; during the 
third, three times, and so on till the number reaches 
ten, where it may be held as a daily limit. 

Get the movements committed to memory before 
beginning the exercise. 

Put thought into every movement, and along with 
it lots of courage, interest and ginger. 

151 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

When the practice grows monotonous, instead of 
giving it up, go right on, resolved to follow out your 
original purpose to the end. Such an exercise of the 
will is sure to produce a good effect on the physical 
disorder for which you have undertaken the practice. 
If you are neurotic you will be beset by fears of all 
sorts before you have gone very far. Your weak, 
dissociate consciousness will hatch up excuses of all 
sorts as a reason for discontinuance of the innovations 
thus introduced; but you must turn to all such sug- 
gestions a deaf ear. Do not be induced to give over 
your wholesome practice. 

It will of course be understood that the exercises 
should be taken where the air is fresh, and with the 
body lightly clothed. Direct drafts are to be shunned, 
especially when perspiration covers the skin. 

Among my readers there are doubtless many who 
are already taking about as much general exercise in 
the discharge of their ordinary duties as their 
strength will justify, and it will be understood that, 
from among these 'exercises, they should do no more 
than select a few which call into action those parts of 
the body neglected in the usual routine, and employ 
them moderately so as to even up and better dis- 

152 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

tribute the physical activities. There are others who 
are too ill to take up this part of the treatment, and 
some are otherwise disqualified. Let such read over 
the exercises in the order recommended and think out 
the movements in detail. The accompanying illustra- 
tions will aid them materially in doing so. From 
faithful use of the imagination — seeing themselves in 
fancy going through the various movements — they 
will derive much benefit. 

Exercise One 

Stand erect, shoulders well back but the body in- 
clined slightly forwards so as to throw the weight 
towards the ball of the foot. 

1. Eaise the arms from the side to a horizontal 
position, with the palms turned downwards. Then 
raise them above the head, bending the forearm and 
touch the top of the head as shown in Figure 3. In 
executing this movement the elbows should be kept 
well backwards. 

2. Raise the arms upwards in full extension and 
then slowly bring the palms together over the head. 
In lowering the arms force them backwards as far as 
you can. 

153 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

Exercise Two 

Assume the same position prescribed for Exercise 
One. 

1. Raise the arms to a level with the shoulders, as 
in Exercise One. Then swing the arms forwards, 
without lowering them, so as to touch palms. 

2. Extend the arms, as before. Then swing them 
directly backwards, and slightly downwards, as far 
as possible. Then swing them forwards and back- 
wards several times, bringing the palms together in 
front and then approximating the backs behind as 
closely as possible. (Study Figures 5 and 6.) 

Exercise Three 

Take the position of Exercise One. 

1. Raise the arms to the horizontal. Then de- 
scribe a circle with each arm, keeping the arms as far 
backwards as possible. Begin slowly and gradually 
increase the movement. Make the circles as large as 
you can without bringing the hands in front of the 
body line. 

Exercise Four 

Take the position of Exercise One. 

1. Keep the upper arm horizontal and bend the 

154 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

arms so as to bring the hands close to the head, the 
tips of the fingers resting lightly on the shoulders. 

2. Eetaining the general position, bring the 
elbows as closely together in front as yon can. Then 
carry them to the rear as far as possible. Mbve them 
thus forwards and backwards several times. (Con- 
sult Figure 8.) 

Exercise Five 

Assume the position of Exercise One. 

1. Put the arms into the position illustrated in 
Figure 8, but at first with the hands unclosed. Then 
suddenly close the fists firmly, and then open the 
hands as widely as possible. 

2. Eest a moment, and then continue the opening 
and closing movements several times, making the 
movements as strong as you can. 

Exercise Six 

Take the usual position. 

1. Separate the arms a little from the body, and 
bend the forearms so that they shall point directly 
upwards. Then, without moving the elbows, bring 
the palms of the hands together in front of you. 

155 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

2. Starting from the last position, push the arms 
forwards to their full length with the hands upturned 
and looking directly forwards. Kepeat these exer- 
cises several times. 

Exercise Seven 

Same position as in the other exercises. 

1. Raise the forearms to a horizontal position, so 
that they shall he at right angles to the vertical line 
of the body. Then thrust the hands and arms for- 
wards, keeping the forearms horizontal, the full 
length of the arms. Follow with a reversal of this 
movement, carrying the elbows as far backwards as 
possible, but keeping the forearms in the horizontal 
position. Repeat. (Consult Figures 14 and 15.) 

Exercise Eight 

Assume the usual position. 

1. Place the hands on the hips, as shown in 
Figure 16, fingers forwards and thumb backwards. 
Keeping the head well up, bend the body forwards at 
the hips (Figure 17). Then bend backwards as 
shown in Figure 18. Repeat the movements. 

156 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

Exercise Nine 

Take the usual position. 

1. Place the hands on the hips, as in the last 
exercise. Then bend the trunk of the body as far to 
the right as possible, and afterwards to the left, and 
repeat. Keep the legs straight. (See Figure 19.) 

Exercise Ten 

Take the usual position. 

1. Place the hands on the hips as in the previous 
exercise. Then swing the trunk to the right, as in 
the last exercise. Prom this point carry the bent 
trunk around until it has made a half circle and the 
trunk is left bent to the left. Kest for a moment after 
restoring the body to the upright position. Then 
bend the trunk again to the left and from that point 
circle the bent trunk around forwards to the right 
bent position. 

This is a difficult exercise to do well, and should 
not be repeated more than once for the first two or 
three times. 

I repeat my charge concerning the mental attention 
and energizing thought to be put into each effort. 

157 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

Exercise Eleven 

Take the usual position. 

1. Raise the arms in an extended position over 
the head, the palms of the hands forwards, as in 
Figure 21. Lower the arms and bend the body for- 
wards at the hips and touch the floor with the tips of 
the fingers. You may not be able to do this at first, 
but come as near to the floor as you can. The knees 
must not be bent during the movement. Return to 
the original position and repeat. 

Exercise Twelve 

Take the usual position. 

1. Extend the arms forwards as in Figure 15, the 
hands touching. Bend the body forwards at the hips 
as far as you can while at the same time you swing 
the arms backwards and upwards, as shown in 
Figure 24. Keep the arms and knees stiff and 
straight. Return to the original position, and repeat. 

Exercise Thirteen 

Take the usual position. 

1. Place the hands on the hips as in Figure 16. 
Keep the heels together, and close to the floor, but 

158 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

separate the toes, bend the knees and separate them 
as widely as possible, thus lowering the trunk of the 
body into a squatting posture, with the back straight 
and the head erect. Return to the original position 
and repeat. 

Exercise Fourteen 

Take the usual position. 

1. Hands on the hips as in the last exercise. Go 
into the squatting posture, as in the last exercise, only 
instead of keeping the heels close to the floor, throw 
the weight onto the balls of the feet. The trunk must 
be kept straight and the head up. Bepeat. (See 
Figure 26.) 

Exercise Fifteen 

Assume the usual position. 

1. Place the hands on the hips as in the last exer- 
cise. Throwing the weight of the body on first one 
leg and then the other, carry the free foot as far for- 
wards and backwards as you can a few times. 
(Figures 27 and 28.) 

This drill in balancing the body on one foot is 
excellent exercise for both the motor and sensory 
functions of the spinal cord, as well as the develop- 
ment of the will. 

159 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

Exercise Sixteen 

Take the usual position. 

1. Hands on the hips as in the last position. 
Raise the legs, first one and then the other, as high 
as possible, while balancing on the opposite leg. Be- 
gin these movements slowly, but aim to increase the 
speed by practice. (See Figure 29.) 

Exercise Seventeen 

Take the usual position. 

1. Keeping the heels together, raise the body onto 
the toes, as shown in Figure 30. Return the heels to 
the floor and repeat several times. 

In order to impress upon the reader's mind the 
relative uselessness of these exercises without the ac- 
companying thought of purpose and healthful ex- 
pectation, I want to say again that he must concen- 
trate upon every movement. To practice in a per- 
functory manner is to destroy the effect. 



160 



THE FOLLOWING ILLUSTRATIONS 
OF PHYSICAL EXERCISES 

were posed for by 
MR. ALFRED BIGNEY, 

Physical Expert. 




Figure 1. 




Figure 2. 




Figure 3. 




Figure 4. 




Figure 5. 




Figure 6. 




Figure 7. 






X 





Figure 




Figure 9. 




Figure 10. 




Figure 11. 




Figure 12. 




Figure 13. 




Figure 14. 




Figure 11 




Figure 16. 




Figure 17. 




Figure 18. 




Figure 19. 




Figure 20. 




Figure 21. 




Figure 22. 




Figure 23. 




Figure 24. 




Figure 25. 




Figure 26. 




Figure 27. 




Figure 28. 




Figure 29. 




Figure 30. 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 



Letter XXIII 



THE MATTER OF HEREDITY 

The prime predisponent to disease is heredity. 
We come into the world with life's stage set for a 
drama of a certain sort, and we play that drama 
according to the lines given us, unless meanwhile 
we revise our tastes and tendencies. Those who 
observe us remark on the likeness in figure, move- 
ment and feature to our parents. We discover in 
ourselves mental traits that are much like those of 
father or mother, or perhaps of both. Like father, 
like daughter; like mother, like son; thus do the 
sexes most frequently cross in the generative course. 

Heredity Represents Tendency 

But heredity represents tendencies only; and those 
tendencies are not imperative. If a large enough 
emotion come into your life to make a certain line 
of conduct desirable in your eyes you can inhibit 
and direct your course accordingly. In the absence 
of such an emotional stimulus the drama is very 
likely to be played as originally outlined. 

223 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

The impelling emotions ? Ah, there is the rub. 
Man in general is driftwood on life's sea. To be 
anything better implies struggle with strong forces, 
and the weak emotions prevail. The man who does 
things in this world is the man who either has had 
a vision or feels endowed with a mission. An ex- 
ample of the former is a man who suddenly breaks 
from evil habits and forever after climbs towards 
the heights, recreating himself in mind and body con- 
formably with an ideal of which he had caught an 
impressive view. An example of the latter is the 
man who from his youth on has felt an inexplicable 
urge which has given him no rest, and which still 
impels him to equip for earnest work. 

The driving emotions cannot be created at will, 
but they can be solicited. They come to those who 
want them badly enough to keep them in mind, and 
not to the thoughtless and frivolous. 

When a man senses a strong need of health and 
strength he can so essentially modify all his ways as 
to obtain them. But to do so he must regulate his 
habits. 

Regulating the Habits 

For one thing he must take good care of his diges- 

224 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

tive system. But do not get the idea that this means 
giving hesitating, doubtful, suspicious attention to the 
matter of diet. Like the science of therapeutics, 
dietetics is still in its infancy. Food experts are 
such mainly in name, and their dictum is not to be 
taken as the final word. The truth is that most of 
the well prepared foods commonly served at the 
table of the ordinary family are wholesome enough 
in themselves, and no one need hesitate, no matter 
what his chronic ailment — unless it be an organic 
lesion involving the digestive organs themselves — to 
eat them, provided he do so in a moderate way, and 
in the spirit of confidence. The same may be said 
of the drinks commonly served. A single cup of tea 
or coffee a day — not both — is admissible. A little 
good wine or beer at meal time, and never between 
meals, is probably harmless, though I myself take 
none. A single cigar after dinner is also probably 
harmless. But to eat voraciously, and to drink and 
smoke more than I have indicated is pernicious. The 
well man may bear his bad habits for years, but an 
ailing man should resolutely cut them out. 

It is advisable to keep the bowels active, and if 
there is a vicious tendency to constipation, the use 

225 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

of mild laxatives, or of enemas, is preferable to per- 
sistent inactivity. But a systematic use of sugges- 
tion, and the cultivation of confidence in a faithful 
response to your demands for activity, is amply effec- 
tive in most instances, especially in the young and 
middle aged. Indeed, psychotherapy for constipa- 
tion rarely fails. 

The nervous system, which will here include the 
brain, is more directly offended by defective hygiene 
than is any other system of the organism. Strenuous 
emotions send their vibrations to every nerve fibre 
in the body, modifying its tone and often disturbing 
the physical functions supplied by it. Pernicious 
habits of eating, drinking, smoking, sleeping, breath- 
ing, thinking and exercising have a bad effect on it. 
Loss of faith in ourselves favors the development 
of unsteady nerve action and the creation of a state 
of uncertainty throughout the body. Allowing fear 
to assert its power over the mind is a prolific source 
of nerve disorder. A calm trust in the eternal good- 
ness of things is the best sedative anywhere to be 
found; and it is a state of moral consciousness pa- 
tiently and perseveringly to be sought. Nerves do not 
fall into disorder as long as there is a good director 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

at the head of affairs. For this reason we ought 
always to preserve our poise, — a thing not easily 
done, but one which can be done when we set our- 
selves faithfully to the task. 

Then if nerves represent the cause of our chiefest 
distress, it is essential to preserve, and, when lost, 
to regain, our self-command. To do this ought to 
be one of our chiefest concerns. It is when the nerve 
impulses which are sent out from the centers are 
regular in their flow and bespeak a wise self-com- 
mand, that order and harmony, and hence mental 
and physical health, are to be found. 

There are no medicines that by their true action 
exercise a curative action upon nerve disorders. 
Many of them have a sedative effect; but when a 
sedative is used the psychic resistence is diminished 
and the cure is thereby deferred. Unless the symp- 
toms are extreme it is far better to fight out the bat- 
tle with the clamorous senses, with courage, and 
have it over. The volitionary energies awakened 
and exercised by a struggle of that kind will carry 
one rapidly towards the goal. 

Nervous symptoms are always irrational in their 

227 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

expression. The sense of extreme prostration is an 
example in point. You wake after a good sleep feel- 
ing weak and fatigued, when you ought to have a 
sense of rest. You dread the duties of the day, feel- 
ing unable to discharge them. But as the day wears 
on and lively feelings would naturally begin to tire, 
yours grow stronger. On another occasion, after a 
sleepless night you have a day of unusual strength 
and courage. With a nervous person it is feeling, 
feeling, feeling, and the real conditions are not what 
they seem. 

Now that you see the fallacies encouraged by 
nerves, and the unreality of the conditions they sug- 
gest, I shall expect you to cut out the indulgencies of 
which you have hitherto been guilty and clear the 
ground for an effective management of the situation. 

This strong handling of ourselves is the only basis 
on which good health can be safely predicated. 

This, together with a rational management of your 
habits of eating and drinking, sleep and exercise, will 
provide all that is required beyond the psychic prin- 
ciples of right living which I am now ready to bring 
more directly and specifically before you. 



228 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 



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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 



The Classification of Foods 

ORGANIC 



PROTEIDS 

(The Tissue Formers) 

Source — Found in animal and 
vegetable tissues. 

Composition — Carbon , hydro- 
gen, nitrogen, oxygen and 
sulphur — the proteid mole- 
cule being very complex. 

Physical Properties — Amor- 
phous, solid, liquid or semi- 
liquid, of variable solubility, 
coagulable by heat and acids 
and easily decomposed. 

Types or Varieties — Egg- Albu- 
min, serum-albumin, casein, 
globulin, fibrin, peptones, 
albuminoids, etc. 

Common Forms — Lean meat, 
eggs, milk, cheese, peas, 
beans and the various cere- 
als supply bulk of proteids. 

FATS 

(Heat Producers) 

Source — Found in animal and 
vegetable foods. 

Composition — Carbon, hydro- 
gen and oxygen. 

Physical Properties — Solid, 
semi-solid, or liquid, easily 
saponified or emulsified. 

Types or Varieties— Stearin, 
palmitin and olein. 

Common Forms — Butter, fat 
meat, bacon, lard, olive oil, 
cream, chocolate, and cer- 
tain nuts. 



CARBOHYDRATES 

(Energy or Work Producers) 

Source — Almost entirely ob- 
tained from vegetable world. 

Composition — Carbon, hydro- 
gen and oxygen. 

Physical Properties — Polymor- 
phous, occurring in crystal- 
line, granular, powder, liquid 
or semi-liquid form. Solu- 
bility very variable. Starch 
changed to sugar (maltose 
and dextrose) by diastasic 
ferment. 

Types or Varieties — Amylose 
(starch, glycogen and cellu- 
lose), dextrose (levulose and 
galactose), saccharose (lac- 
tose and maltose). 

Common Forms — Potato, rice, 
corn starch, arrowroot, many 
grains like wheat and oats, 
the various sugars (cane, 
beet and milk), maple syrup, 
molasses, honey, etc. 

INORGANIC 

The main inorganic foods 
are water and common salt. 



230 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

Approximate Time Needed for the 
Digestion of Certain Foods 

Beef, boiled 3 hours 

Beef, roasted 3 to 4 hours 

Fish, boiled \y 2 to 2Y 2 hours 

Oysters, raw 2 hours 

Lamb 2 x / 2 hours 

Mutton, roasted 3 to V/ 2 hours 

Milk 2 hours 

Ham, boiled 2 to 3 hours 

Pork, roasted 5 hours 

Poultry, boiled or roasted 2% to 4 hours 

Goose, roasted 4 to 5 hours 

Tripe 1 hour 

Veal, as prepared in the British 

Isles 4J^ hours 

Eggs, raw 2 hours 

Eggs, fried or boiled hard 3 to 3J^ hours 

Cheese 3 to 4 hours 

Apples 3 to 4 hours 

Cabbage V/ 2 to 4 hours 

Potatoes 23^ to V/ 2 hours 

Turnips 3J^ to 4 hours 

Rice ) ( 1 to 2 hours 
Sago / if completely cooked ... < 1 to 2 hours 
Tapioca ) ( 1 to 2 hours 
Wheaten bread 3 to 4 hours 

An ordinary meal is usually completely digested in 
4 to 5 hours. 

231 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 



Letter XXIV 



ACTION AND REACTION 

One of the best recognized laws of life action is 
that of rhythm. "Everything moves to and fro in 
rhythm, between its poles," reads an old aphorism. 
"Everything rises and falls in rhythm, within the 
limits of its nature. Everything advances and re- 
treats in rhythm, within the limits of its power/' 

Emotion, including feeling in general, ebbs and 
flovvs like a tide. On one day we are sad, and all 
the beauties of nature are seen through amber lenses. 
We are discouraged, and even despairing. The aims 
and ambitions which had been bewitching in their 
forms and hues are plain and dull; our aspirations 
have lost their uplift. We may put on a good front 
from a sense of duty or a consideration of advantage, 
but it has no spirit in it. Then on the morrow we 
wake as new men and enter upon our duties with a 
relish born of more abundant life. Strength has 
been renewed, energies have been quickened, senses 
have been given fresh relish and all life rings out a 
better tone. 

232 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

Peculiar phenomena characterize the oscillations 
from one pole to the other when the movement is left 
to itself. Following deep depression is a period of 
sublime elation ; and then again we are plunged into 
deep despair. The movement does not cease at the 
half-way point ; but the pendulum swings to its fullest 
reach and then as surely returns. Backwards and 
forth, to and fro, up and down, is the ever restless 
and resistless emotional swing. Sundry things may 
occasion delays, making the oscillations unequal in 
point of time, but there is no obstacle, under normal 
conditions, able to arrest them. 

Action and Reaction in Disease 

Into this to and fro action of the natural forces 
of the organism morbidity enters as a disturbing 
element. The rhythm never wholly ceases, though 
it is often greatly retarded; but more frequently it 
is at first much exaggerated. Feeling becomes in- 
tensified to the point of distress, and the depression 
moods drive the consciousness to low levels. There 
is disorder everywhere. 

And then, in the processes of cure, the patient 
passes through a renewal of the well-marked rhythmic 

233 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

action. On one day, or on a series of days, he is 
borne upwards again on the bosom of the sensory 
sea, only to be let back a little later to the low levels. 
And so the see-saw movement goes on as the process 
of cure follows the gradual ascent of a tilted plane, 
finally bringing him again to a normal level. 

This life rhythm is a phase of environment to 
which we have to learn adjustment. Those who 
make no serious attempt at it live in a state of alter- 
nate heaven and hell. They enjoy much, they suffer 
much; and they get nowhere, unless, indeed, they 
gradually move down the decline towards utter fail- 
ure and loss. 

To the sensitive sufferer these up-and-down move- 
ments are peculiarly distressing. It may be that 
the disordered oscillations begin at once to respond 
to the treatment, showing a resumption of more 
orderly action, and especially disclosing a disposition 
to pursue their movements on a higher plane, when, 
without appreciable cause, the patient experiences a 
reprecipitation to depressed levels. Then it is, if 
there be an absence of sustaining appreciation of the 
normal rise and fall of sensory and emotional tides, 
and of their usual exaggeration in morbid states, that 

234 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

the ailing one becomes discouraged to the point of 
utter abandonment of effort. But one like you who 
has a knowledge of all this, should enter upon an 
analysis that will clearly expose the nature of the 
experiences and make you able to say to yourself, 
"This slump is no more than is common in the ex- 
perience of all who are on the rise out of low mental 
and physical states, and it is sure to be succeeded by 
an ascent that shall carry me higher than I have yet 
been, provided I maintain my mental poise and 
courage." And so you fortify yourself against de- 
spair and raise your courage to the prevailing point. 

The rhythmic motion must not be left to itself. 
When some cause of disturbance has been sufficiently 
potent to create atypical movements, it needs a cer- 
tain amount of aid from the conscious will to cor- 
rect its inequalities and eccentricities. It ought also 
to be said that, even in normal states, whenever the 
oscillations of emotion and feeling tend to become 
exaggerated, as they do in all nervous temperaments, 
they ought to be taken in hand, studied in detail, and 
their extreme swings restrained. The wise course is 
to forbid great elevations and deep depressions. It 
is a movement over which the will has control, as it 
has over every mental and physical function, but in 

235 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

this instance, as in many others, the control is in- 
direct and therefore not prompt. The swing must 
not be allowed to run high, and it must be forbidden 
to dip low. 

But how is the movement to be restrained? Ex- 
perience appears to show that to attempt to take con- 
trol of an emotion or feeling is immediately to in- 
tensify it. It thrives on attention, and one is de- 
feated in his purpose to defeat it by direct attack. 
As this letter is long enough already I shall tell you 
how to proceed at another time. 

Of course we could go on with our analysis but I 
have sufficiently illustrated the process. The idea is 
to look at the trouble from every side, without fear; 
to pull it apart and study its constituents, applying 
as we do so the various principles of psychotherapy 
for relief. You may be tempted to say, "I cant;" 
but you can if you will. You can't do anything worth 
while without an effort. Why be under the power 
of things when you can get on top by a good strenu- 
ous effort? Scatter your ailments by facing them 
down and dissecting them; and, as you do so, feel 
assured that you are mastering them. Pick up each 
component and shake the vitality out of it. Use 
on it your persuasion, your suggestion and your com- 
mand. It is up to you to do your task well. 

236 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 



Letter XXV 



THOSE OVERWHELMING FEELINGS 

My last letter was already too long to allow me to 
tell you in it how to take control of exaggerated 
rhythm, which when left unrestrained is so apt to 
produce the usual effects of harsh and violent action. 
Besides, since its elucidation involves a statement of 
one of the fundamental features of self-help, and one, 
moreover, belonging to the phenomena of emotion 
and feeling in general, it may well form the subject 
matter of an entire letter. 

I want you to give close attention to what follows, 
for you will make poor headway in the direction of 
self -cure if you do not follow the course I am about 
to mark out. 

A Preliminary Consideration 

That emotions are something more than mere states 
of mind, does not militate against the opinion that 
they are states of mind. The only channels through 
which they can reach normal consciousness are those 
of the physical senses. A thought is something more 

237 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

than a mental action: it produces certain physical 
effects, though not always of a sensory nature. A 
thought is also more than a cold mental action, for 
it is always fathered by an emotion. 

Then turning to the physical side of the phe- 
nomena it is at once discovered that there is a move- 
ment from the body towards mind, as well as from 
the mind towards the body. It is doubtless true that 
in certain instances "we feel sorry because we cry, 
angry because we strike, afraid because we tremble," 
as some of the academecians insist; but there are 
many as sensible psychologists who posit that far 
more frequently we cry because we are sorry, strike 
because we are angry and tremble because we are 
afraid. It is the same old claim that all mental 
disorders, and all nervous disorders as well, have a 
primary physical cause. And it is upon this theory 
that the medical teaching refuses to put organic affec- 
tions in the eatagory of diseases amenable to psycho- 
therapy. 

Direct Attack on Feelings Inadvisable 

As another preliminary let me recall what I said 
in my last letter regarding the futility of combatting 
emotions, feelings and sensations in a direct manner. 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

It is true that an adept in self-control may venture 
to attack disorders as such with good success; but a 
novice like you would be sure to fail. You must pro- 
ceed by an indirect course, availing yourself of 
strategy. In an aggressive movement it is a bold 
and confident commander who attacks the enemy by 
direct approach. 

If, therefore, emotion, feeling and sensation are 
well entrenched in consciousness and are supplied 
with conveniences for defense, a strategic expedient 
most commendable is in some way to turn their flank ; 
or, best of all, being confident of victory in an open 
fight, to march boldly into the enemy's country leav- 
ing their defenses on one side and making for the 
heart of their possessions. In other words it is 
always wise for you to choose your own fighting 
ground. If they have thrown up defenses at a cer- 
tain point within the lines of your territory, you do 
not need to attack them there, but get at them in the 
rear and you will soon have them on the run. 

This recommendation is more than a theory. It is 
the only sure way to success, as I have found in num- 
berless instances. Ignore the immediate situation 
and proceed to establish one of your own which shall 
give you an advantage. 

239 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

Controlling the Feelings 

Let us see how this works out in practice. You 
have experienced a digestive upset, we will say, and 
your fears come trooping in. Having reached middle 
life, we will assume, your feelings begin to whisper 
suggestions of age effects, and to make you believe 
that the period of functional breakdown has prob- 
ably arrived. They wave red flags at you and de- 
mand a halt. They suggest more rest, a curtailment 
of alimentary supply and a close scrutiny of diet. 
The emotion of fear tries hard to bring you under its 
power, and, if it succeed, the organism will soon be 
found defective in other functions. It may be true 
that you have been indiscreet, and I should not advise 
you to ignore the warning in toto. Review your 
manner of living and eliminate from it whatever is 
plainly enough deliterious. This can be done as a 
matter of reasonable prudence without your falling 
under the power of an irrational fear which would 
wreck your health and happiness. Keep your good 
sense always in evidence. Reflect that fear-thought 
turned to any part of the body is disorganizing, and 
that even doubt and distrust are expressions of fear. 
Remember that ailments due to physiologically fail- 
ing powers do not often develop rapidly to a trouble- 

240 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

some degree and remain seriously to complicate and 
annoy, provided confidence in one's powers retains 
one's integrity. Drum up your courage, study your 
resources, and then act a strong part. Having re- 
mobilized your forces, resolve to go on as though noth- 
ing had happened to unsettle your faith or distinctly 
modify your campaign of aggressiveness. 

The common course differs materially. Progress 
comes to a standstill; the signals of danger are al- 
lowed to paralyze vigorous action; the warnings are 
taken too seriously; fear is allowed to control func- 
tion, and then the victim wrestles and struggles with 
his adversary in a vain effort to destroy it or to drive 
it out. 

My reader, if you are already in such a predica- 
ment as I have described, cease your direct antago- 
nism and recover your energies for a fresh advance 
without regard to doubts, misgivings, and the memo- 
ries of past defeats to which you will give a cold 
shoulder as you pursue your way towards the goal of 
your desires. Ignore the menaces and loud warnings 
of your frantic emotions, and go on your way with a 
prudence from which fear has been eliminated, and 
with a courage in which there is a dash of daring, 
or even recklessness. The strong way is always the 
best way. It is the coward who draws the bullets. Be 
strong! Be Strong! BE STKONG! 

241 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 



Letter XXVI 



ANOTHER WORD ABOUT FEAR 

I have discussed the emotions in general, and have 
had something to say about fear, but as this emotion 
takes so prominent a place in the development and 
maintenance of physical disorder, and nervous dis- 
turbances in particular, it deserves more detailed con- 
sideration. 

Peace! Be Still! 

So long as you are under the agitation of fear your 
mind is unable to reach that state wherein it can ap- 
propriate what it most needs to restore physical har- 
mony. It is unwise to set upon any important under- 
taking when beset by doubt and alarm. The first 
thing to do is to calm yourself. "But that's the very 
thing I've been trying to do all the time," you ex- 
claim, and I do not wonder that the condition seems 
prohibitive. But it is not. It may require in you 
some preliminary training. You may need to use 
some influence stronger than persuasion. It is more 
than likely that you will have to rise and in the dig- 

242 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

nity of jour immortal self command silence, as did 
Jesus when He spoke to the turbulent sea of Galilee. 

By persuasion alone you may be able to quell the 
nervestorm raging within you. All that is required is 
to set up a different state of consciousness, and this is 
not so difficult for one who has accustomed himself 
to seeking the soul's center, where dwells the true 
ego to which the agitations of life do not penetrate. 
There is such a center, and from it you can view your 
conscious situation as a thing apart. You can look 
on as though the experiences through which you are 
passing were those of another. 

Dissipating Fear 

If such an experience is still beyond your reach, 
for it comes only to those who have industriously 
sought it, you can at least apply the principle of 
analysis and scatter your agitations to the four winds. 
Ask yourself the meaning of all this anxiety. Are 
you afraid that some vastly unusual experience of a 
most direful kind is impending ? Consider for a mo- 
ment: Have not your fears nearly always proved 
groundless in the past ? Have you realized one-tenth 
of the dreadful things featured in your apprehen- 
sion? Have you not assured yourself more than 

243 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

once, after witnessing the bursting of jour fear-bub- 
bles, that you would never fear again \ But what if 
the worst of your apprehensions should be realized ? 
Are you afraid to die ? You have professed a large 
degree of trust in the Eternal Goodness, and here 
you are foolishly quaking with fear. Are you will- 
ing to be called a coward ? Last evening a man who 
allows his weak fears to dominate him was again re- 
hearsing to me his groundless apprehensions over the 
'phone. "Why, you foolish fellow," I said, "if you 
had an infant child who acted as you do over noth- 
ing, you'd give him a good whipping. Behave your- 
self ! You are acting like a child." As I write he 
has called me up to say that my stinging words had 
aroused him to a different state of consciousness, in 
consequence of which he was feeling much better. 

By thus pulling your fears to pieces and studying 
them in parts, you reveal their utter lack of reason 
for existing. This of itself may be enough to dissi- 
pate them so that any real ailments you have can be 
dealt with by themselves, but the chances are that 
your supposed ailments will themselves disappear 
when you become calm. 

But now let us suppose that your attempts to break 

244 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

the force of your fears have been futile. Even then 
you are not to give over to despair. No! No! Set 
to work with your suggestions. If you cannot reach 
that center of calm to which you would gladly hie, 
at least assume the airs of one who can. Say in as 
calm and confident tones as you can : "I am at peace. 
My agitation ceases. There is calmness and confi- 
dence settling into my soul to which I have long been 
a stranger. I — my real self — do not fear. I have 
no occasion to hold my nerves in tension, and I — let 
— go." But even this is not all you should do in a 
suggestive way. Act the part as well as speak it. 
Give constant physical expression to what your words 
have been affirming. Smile a smile of confidence, 
not only at the moment, but on all suitable occasions. 
.Refuse to let your countenance and actions betoken 
doubt or fear. See how good an actor you can be, and 
continue to play the part. 

If you do this faithfully and persistently, the time 
will come when you will feel such authority over all 
your weaknesses that you can order them away and 
find yourself master of the situation. 

The man or woman who has acquired command 
over the physical expression of fear will not fail to 

245 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

gain a victory over the fear itself, for it is a well- 
established psychological law that an emotion rigidly 
denied expression dies ont. Atrophy overtakes every 
part of the organism and every function of it, which 
long remains motionless. 

I cannot consent to close this letter without call- 
ing your attention to the immense benefits of the 
whole self growing out of the self-command thus ac- 
quired. He who has attained to mastery of his own 
forces has become a member of the royal order. He 
has reached the height of human attainment. Hence- 
forth the weaknesses so common to humanity have no 
power over him. He walks as a king among men. 



246 



SPECIFIC CONDITIONS REQUIRING 
RELIEF 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 



Letter XXVII 



THOSE NERVES 

To those not familiar with the anatomy and physi- 
ology of the nervous system, and especially what is 
called the "sympathetic system," it is not clear how 
a trouble in one part of the body can create pain and 
disorder in various other parts. It is still more puz- 
zling for them to understand how at the site of the 
lesion there may be no conscious disorder, while in 
other parts the disorder may be extreme. This class 
of phenomena has been given the name "reflex," since 
the symptoms are reflected from one part to another. 
Let me illustrate how this comes about. The phys- 
ical organism is a concrete whole, into the formation 
of which there enter a large number of distinct parts. 
First, there are the individual cells with plain evi- 
dences of intelligence of their own ; then come organs 
capable of conducting their peculiar industries, and 
then systems, such as the conduits for the fluids and 
wires for the purpose of intercommunication. There 
are also stations like the great pumping station in the 
center of the chest, the brain, the solar plexus and 

248 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

the various ganglia of the body, as well as that great 
tunnel into which are gathered the trunk lines for 
protection of the processes of communication with 
various parts of the organism, so arranged that mes- 
sages can be given out at various stations on the way 
from one extremity of the body to the other. I have 
introduced some delicately-made illustrations in order 
to make this important feature of disease phenomena 
clear to you, and I hope you will study them with 
care. You will see that into every part of the body 
nerves and blood vessels are distributed, so that from 
every cubic centimeter of the organism messages can 
be sent to every other part with the greatest facility. 
These messages go first to the station with which the 
part is directly connected. If the trouble is simple, 
it will not be necessary for the knowledge to go any 
further. But if the disturbance cannot be handled at 
that station, the news is transmitted to the next sta- 
tion higher up and from there onwards to the great 
brain center if necessary. Now the idea is that from 
any point on the way the assistance of correlated parts 
and functions can be called upon to aid in the re- 
quired action, showing what a remarkable solidarity 
is here established. But now if the trouble is great, 
the whole organism is aroused and there is always 

249 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

danger of the great brain center being overwhelmed 
with the frantic calls made upon it. Particularly is 
this true in certain forms of nerve disorder, in the 
symptoms of which anarchy is plainly to be discerned. 



Study of the Charts a Part of the Patient's 
Education 

Begin your study with Chart I, which shows the 
under side of the brain and the mechanism by means 
of which every part of it can be held in the closest 
relation to every other part, and from which lines 
of communication are established through the nerves 
to every region of the body. The stumps of these 
lines are plainly shown. Follow this chart with the 
others in their numerical order and you cannot fail 
to get a good conception of the mechanism by means 
of which the thousand and one parts of the organism 
are united in action into one complex whole. 

Upon the outer surface of the brain convolutions 
is a thick layer of grey matter, over which is spread 
a delicate membrane to give the mass greater solidity 
as well as to protect it from outside shocks. This 
serous membrane forms one side of a closed space 
separating the brain matter from the inner side of 

250 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

the skull. A similar sack space surrounds the spinal 
cord all the way down. This grey matter is the local 
seat of consciousness, and for this reason the most 
important part of the human structure. 

In pointing out to you these physical characteris- 
tics I charge you not to forget that these delicate 
physical structures are nothing more than the instru- 
ment by means of which the Universal Mind finds 
consistent expression. Do not for a moment believe, 
as some teach, that thought is merely a secretion of 
the material brain, as bile is of the liver. Look at 
this subject through the eyes of a larger faith and 
you will find more abundant life coming into your 
consciousness. 



251 




CHART Xo. 1 
Base of the Brain 




Terminations 
of supratrochlear 
\rof infratrochlear 
^\ ^ of nasal. 



CHART No. 3 

The nerve trunks of the scalp, face and side of neck 

The above cut will clearly illustrate how through sympathetic action 

symptoms of disorder can be carried to any part of the 

face or neck. 



Superior cervical 



Middle rrrvicnl 



Inferior cervical gang! 




Pharyngeal branches' 



Cardiac branches 



Deep cardiac plexus 

Superficial cardiac plexus. 



Hypogastric plexus 



Sacral ganglia •< [ 



Ganglion impa 



CHART No. 3 
The sympathetic nerve with its larger branches, ganglions and plexuses 




CHART No. i 

Branches of the Spinal Nerves 

Note what a network of large nerves there is in connection with the spine. Through 

reflex action the entire trunk of body can become upset through an irritation 

of some one nerve remotely situated, cr a general negativeness of the 

entire nervous system 



THE BRACHIAL PLEXUS. 

.External anterior thoracic. 

■Internal anterior thoracic. 
Musculo-culaneous. 




CHART No. 5 

Trunk nerves of the left upper extremity 

Neuritis is cften mistaken by some for rheumatism on account of 

reflex action and the irritated nerves causing pain or 

soreness in muscles 



\ 



V 



in 




CHART No. 6 

Nerves of the lower extremity (posterior view), showing Great 

Sciatic Nerve 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 



Letter XXVIII 



THOSE NERVES— Continued 

It is impossible to isolate nervous disorders from 
general functional disorders. Functional action is de- 
pendent on the nerve impulses conveyed to and from 
the various organs and coordination between the va- 
rious parts is obtained by means of the reflexes trans- 
mitted from one function to another. For this rea- 
son we may safely say that all functional disorder is 
due to a disturbed nervous action. 

While this statement is true, it must not be sup- 
posed that in every instance the anomalous action is 
attributable to a diseased state of the nerves them- 
selves. In certain disorders of a nervous sort there 
are changes which pathologists have been able to dem- 
onstrate in the composition of the nerve structure, 
some of which are evanescent, while certain others 
are of a more lasting nature because of a more pro- 
nounced organic character. In the psychoneuroses 
the energy granules of the neurons may be changed 

265 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

in number and appearance, but there is nothing to 
indicate that there is any true structural modifica- 
tion. For this reason there is no support for the in- 
ference so commonly made that the nerves in cases of 
the kind mentioned are suffering from malnutrition 
and need more of this, that and the other element to 
restore their integrity. When the impulses emanat- 
ing from the centers are feeble and irregular, the de- 
fect does not often lie in the nerves themselves, but 
is found in the diminished volume of nervous im- 
pulses emitted from the great centers. 

I premise thus so that your mind may be detached 
from the old idea that the origin of these functional 
disorders is in the material organism. Psychoses and 
neuroses are not due to physical changes, but it is 
quite true that physical changes, when they have once 
been established in consequence of primary func- 
tional changes or otherwise, react unfavorably on the 
functions. 

Hypothetical Cases 

While it is so difficult to isolate certain disease 
complexes and dub them "nervous" to the exclusion 
of others, there are particular phenomena which for 

266 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

study purposes may be so designated. Of these, in 
the hypothetical cases I am about to recite, we shall 
undertake to make a study with a direct view to eluci- 
dating the kind and degree of self-help which it is 
possible to give. 

Case One 

Here is a young woman of, say, twenty-six years, 
of a nervous temperament. As a child she was deli- 
cate, high-strung, petulant and hard to control. In 
school she was bright, learned readily and always 
had good marks. But the physical side of her organ- 
ism was often in disorder. Her appetite was fitful 
and capricious ; she had many of the lesser ailments 
peculiar to children, and digestive disorders in par- 
ticular. As she came into womanhood her restless- 
ness increased. She had numerous beaux, had small 
love experiences, but was so easily piqued, was so 
exacting in her demands, and so variable in her fan- 
cies that they were not of long duration. Her pres- 
ent condition is pitiable. She is nervous, restless, 
dissatisfied ; has difficulty in getting interested in se- 
rious occupations; eats little, is depressed, and is 
sleepless, or is disposed to sleep overmuch under the 

267 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

impression that she requires more sleep than most 
people. 

This woman is representative of a large class. The 
symptoms vary more or less, but the fundamentals 
are substantially as given. 

The salvation of such a woman depends on her 
getting interested in some distinct life purpose. On 
her sensitive organism, in which there is always an 
erotic tendency, love and marriage would have a most 
wholesome effect. But the man of her choice needs 
to be of a vitalistic temperament, full of both strength 
and tenderness, and otherwise well suited to domi- 
nate her with the potent influences of a large, manly 
soul. Under the power of such an overshadowing 
presence a woman of this makeup can develop into 
good health and a happy life. She will be most try- 
ing to her husband at times, owing to the repletion 
of her caprices, but if he be of the nature described 
he will bear with her peculiarities and overlook her 
petulances until such time as she has come into a 
larger and happier life. 

But she may not at once find the man for whom 
her nature pines, and in that case her creative ener- 
gies must seek other outlets. Art, music, literature, 

268 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

teaching, settlement work, a commercial pursuit, or 
some other occupation in which her pent-up energies 
can find relief, is to be taken up with spirit and every 
attempt made to develop a commanding interest. A 
woman of this nature who long continues inactive 
and disinterested, unless she fall under the influence 
of some great emotion of a restraining kind, is sure 
to be a distress to herself and her associates. 

I do not suggest the foregoing expedients as abso- 
lute cures for the unpleasant symptoms which cling 
to such natures with the greatest tenacity. At the 
best they have much to overcome, and their struggle 
proves to be unremitting. They could soon bring 
their vagrant feelings under fair control when once 
the way has been shown them, but for their natural 
instability of purpose. They make a resolve, attack 
with vigor, and end in mere flounder. To hold them- 
selves to a purpose seems impossible. The will is 
overwhelmed by the violence of their emotions. 

It is for these reasons that women answering the 
description I have given need to find some way of 
receiving daily, and almost hourly, help from some 
other person. Their success is dependent on repeated 
instruction, inspiration, persuasion, suggestion and 

269 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

command. These helps can be had through the me- 
dium of these letters, and all the helps herein found 
should be utilized to the largest degree. These needy 
ones must go over the various features of self-help 
herein contained and thus keep in touch with their 
source of aid. Much thought and effort are required 
in order to do this well. Their tendency is always 
towards inertia. It is hard for them to hold their 
attention to an effort into which enthusiasm is not 
flowing with a steady stream. The strong forces of 
their being have to be revived daily and self-sugges- 
tion and command have to come into frequent 
requisition. 

Let such an one make the various features of self- 
help set forth in these letters so familiar that they 
shall readily fall into order and be promptly mar- 
shaled to the hard tasks imposed upon them. It is 
the only way out. To be sure, it involves effort, and 
effort of the most strenuous sort. The demand is in- 
exorable. One must either follow directions implic- 
itly or drift into a state of wretchedness most 
intolerable. 

My dear reader of this type, there is help for you. 
You can attain if you will. Resolutely put your 

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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

mind into a positive attitude and keep it there. Cease 
fighting your emotions, and cease humoring your 
weaknesses. Don't say: "I have inherited these 
feeble tendencies and am not responsible for my be- 
havior." You can overcome your inherited tenden- 
cies and, therefore, you are responsible for your acts. 
Use every rational expedient to acquire self-mastery. 
Refuse longer to drift. Do not confess your inability 
after a mere meaningless effort accompanied by posi- 
tive failure, but reaffirm your sufficiency. Grow away 
from the little, the immature, the cowardly, the help- 
less, and become big, womanly, courageous and 
strong. 

In these letters you will find the helps to such a 
development. 



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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 



Letter XXIX 



THOSE NERVES— Continued 
Case Two 

Now let us take that same nervous girl and assume 
that she has been married to a man of the average 
business type. He is virile, coarse, generally kind, 
but inattentive in his ordinary domestic life. He 
likes his club, his cigar, his drink, at times going to 
excess in his indulgences, all of which grate on her 
sensitive nerves, and despite her efforts to bear it 
patiently, brings her at last to a state of profound 
depression or hysterical excitement. 

It soon becomes evident to both parties that a 
change of some kind is necessary. She is not in- 
clined to let herself go in the same directions that 
his inclinations are carrying him, but she came to 
him an uncontrolled, spoiled girl, and the environ- 
ment into which she has been plunged is as bad for 
her as it could well be. She tires of his disposition 
to find his largest satisfactions away from her, and 
he feels that no man, however rugged, would long 

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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

be able to bear her fretfulness without diversion. So 
there they stand looking at one another, wholly at a 
loss to know what to do. He suggests a sanitarium 
for her under the conviction that she is ill, and she 
willingly accepts the proposal under the conviction 
that rest and treatment may be able to tide her over 
what has become an emergency. 

The sanitarium gives her temporary relief, but 
her return home is attended by an early recurrence 
of the old troubles. The physical attentions received 
have not reached the source of her distresses. It is 
not anemia, nor malnutrition that has put her into 
the dreadful condition in which she finds herself, but 
the anemia and malnutrition are now contributing 
to her stay there. Doctors are quite disposed to get 
the rudder at the bow, which makes it so hard for 
them to get their patients safely into port. 

This poor girl had her troubles before she was mar- 
ried, but they were not so hard to bear. At that 
time they were shared by the other members of the 
family, whose sympathy and indulgence she had. 
Now a fresh cause of trouble has been introduced, 
and it is related to that emotional sense which lies 
nearest the trouble center of both men and women, 

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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

namely, the erotic. The husband is full of red- 
blooded virility. He means to be kind and consid- 
erate, but she is shrinking and sensitive. He goes 
at the sex problem as he does at business — in a reso- 
lute, positive way, minus all the frills which appeal 
so strongly to the sensibilities of a delicate woman. 
He cannot understand her lack of ardor, and in- 
wardly threatens to go elsewhere for his pleasures. 
She is equally at a loss to know how he can find de- 
light in such coarseness. Her ideals have been wholly 
shattered. At the same time she revolts at the 
thought of his going to others in search of what a 
man should find at home. In extenuation of her fail- 
ures to make a happy, helpful wife, she pleads her 
ailments. She confesses herself never quite well. 

And thus the domestic craft drifts slowly onwards 
to certain destruction. Her natural mother instinct 
has been sadly chilled, and she is in despair lest the 
physical and mental distresses incident to motherhood 
be thrust upon her. 

This is a common type of nervous womanhood. 

The husband honestly declares to the doctor his 
willingness to do almost anything to better the situa- 
tion. But what can the doctor do, with his material 

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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

remedies? He searches again for hidden traces of 
physical cause for the wife's condition. He finally 
resorts to surgery. And still the mystery thickens. 
He does not question that the trouble lies in the nerv- 
ous system, but he cannot believe that the moving 
cause of the condition lies in mind. And so he 
blunders on. 

In such a situation reeducation can do more to re- 
store harmony and health than anything else. The 
husband needs it as much as does the wife. He needs 
to be told some very plain truths. Both require a 
series of "therapeutic conversations." He may re- 
sent an upsetting of his know-it-all ideas even more 
disdainfully than she. The conditions may be such 
that he has to be left out of the deal altogether. 

While this is unfortunate, it is not prohibitive of 
good, for I have found that when a wife comes by 
well-ordered steps to a high level of psychic experi- 
ence, the husband is not able long to escape the effects 
of her high and orderly thinking. An effect soon 
begins to show itself in him. He seems more consid- 
erate and pliable, until at last a crisis is reached, as 
the result of which he becomes affectionate, subdued 
and teachable. 

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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

The early stages of the psychic subjugation of self 
undertaken by the unhappy wife are full of hard- 
ship. Greater is she who rules her own spirit than 
he who takes a city. The struggle is a hard one, 
and the more so for one of so delicate a nervous or- 
ganization. But the reward is ample, even though 
it comes at the end of months of earnest effort. 
When one is up against an environment which cannot 
be materially modified by direct attack, the part of 
wisdom is so to change one's self that the effect is 
equal to a change in the environment itself. It is 
useless for a woman who finds herself in the predica- 
ment described to plead and fret and grieve over the 
situation. To do so is to aggravate it. Self-adjust- 
ment is the only rational procedure. It is a task fit 
for a Hercules, but one within any woman's range 
of accomplishment, provided she is willing to spend 
her energy on self-modification rather than on the 
hopeless task of changing her husband. It is the 
same old problem of self-mastery to which she must 
come if she hopes to escape the distresses incident 
to self-indulgence and moral weakness. The disorder 
of her nerves is in great measure dependent on the 
loss of her emotional balance and consequent failure 
to put her dynamic forces under the rule of reason, 

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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

and she cannot hope to regain her health and com- 
posure until she has acquired ascendency over their 
erratic expression. 

To accomplish such a purpose involves a use of the 
various therapeutic measures for self-help explicitly 
set forth in other letters. It is a triumph not easily 
achieved, to be sure, and yet is a very certain one to 
those who industriously seek it. Women are more 
nervous than men (1) because they are more sensi- 
tive, and (2) because they are more distinctly under 
the dominance of their large emotions. They find 
self-help less effective than men, owing to a deficiency 
of volitionary energy. The exceptions prove the rule. 

I have told you, my dear girl, how hard it is to 
win, so that you will adjust your efforts at the very 
start to a good hard campaign. There is a lot of 
work to be done in you, and it will take time and 
patience to do it. If you well understand this before 
you begin, but know equally well that the results are 
sure if rightly sought, you will not get so easily dis- 
couraged. My little patient, if you will be strong 
and full of courage, here is my hand to aid you to 
the end. 

There are doubtless some cases in which the mis- 

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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

mating is so decided and the hope of agreement so 
baseless that permanent separation is essential to 
mental and physical health. Whenever this is the 
case, either the patient must be resolute enough to 
insist on dissolution of the nuptial agreement, or 
must cheerfully submit to the husband's initiative 
without letting it plunge her into fresh distresses of 
either mind or body. 



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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 



Letter XXX 



THOSE NERVES— Continued 

In the two preceding letters I have given you sit- 
uations under which women develop aggravated 
forms of nervous disorder, and which if left uncor- 
rected are sure to lead to pitiful invalidism. The 
symptoms were those of neurasthenia or nervous 
weakness, but it must not be supposed that the symp- 
toms given include all those met with in such states. 
I shall now give you some cases presenting symptoms 
of a like kind, but differing in some respects accord- 
ing to the temperaments and physical as well as 
mental states of those in whom they develop. 

Case Three 

Here is a woman who has always been headstrong 
and self-assertive. She is of a vitalistic nature, well 
nourished, full of ambition and resolution. She has 
married a man whom she loves as well as she is ca- 
pable of loving, as it would seem, though I do not 
mean to give an impression that there is in her a 
lack of sincere affection. She loves him well, but 

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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

she loves herself better. This young woman, with 
two children, the last of whom is still in arms, has 
been irritable, sleepless, restless, dissatisfied and taci- 
turn for a year or more. She has lost but little flesh, 
though during gestation she had found herself stouter 
than ever before; but she has unusual pallor, and 
her expression is that of mingled vexation and grief. 
She occasionally weeps, much to her chargin, but her 
moods are not those which elicit pity from her friends, 
as she is uneasy whenever given sympathy, and 
finds a world of fault with her husband and all who 
seek to temper the keenness of her sufferings. 

The physician declares that a small rent in the 
neck of the womb is the offending lesion, and its re- 
pair is effected without relief to the symptoms. The 
insomnia has become distressing and fear of many 
things has taken possession of her. Remedies and 
expedients are employed without avail. There is 
growing nerve and muscle tension which threatens 
convulsive action. She tightens every fiber of her 
mental and moral being with an idea that she is put- 
ting up a stout resistance, without which she should 
long ago have reached the explosive point. She tells 
the doctor and her friends on how many occasions 

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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

she has shown most astonishing courage and, to make 
the impression more profound, she is betrayed into 
clear enough exaggerations. She affirms her faith 
in a happy outcome of her troubles and refuses to 
acknowledge that she is in need of remedial attention. 
She smiles at the credulity of her auditors and espe- 
cially when relating her experiences to a physician. 
She discounts every statement made and every opin- 
ion expressed. She has diagnosed her own case and 
defends her opinions against all comers. And this 
she does with an astonishing air of satisfaction. She 
parries with exceeding skill every assurance given 
her that she is about to recover, and acts as though 
such a result were not a thing devoutly to be wished 
for, since it signifies a state that others hold as ideal. 
There is something dramatic in her manner. She 
strains at effect. Her affection is not easily gained. 
Her loves are capricious. She inclines to those who 
believe as she does and denounces those who disagree 
with her. And yet she can be rescued only by one 
who has pierced her subterfuges and torn off her 
mask, which, strange to say, she herself is scarcely 
aware of having. 

If you, my dear reader, find in this picture some 

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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

of your own symptoms, I want you to let me say a 
word of plain speech to you. You very well know 
that I know what all this means. RTo one else need 
know. I am frank to tell you that there is a peculiar 
perverseness about you, of which you are vaguely con- 
scious, that is proving your destruction. You have a 
sense of living in a hazy, unreal state. Things look 
unnatural, and you react to impressions not accord- 
ing to your good sense, which is ample, but according 
to a bias which you yourself cannot understand. To 
will something better is present with you, but to do 
as your reason dictates seems beyond your power. 

Now take my hand and let me rescue you from 
this unnatural condition. Join me in a hearty effort 
and you shall succeed. Let me be to you a real pres- 
ence for the time, to encourage, to inspire, to com- 
mand you to better living. Resolutely cast off the 
spell that rests upon you. Disengage yourself from 
the entanglement. Affirm your noble birth and avail 
yourself of your birthright. You can and must be set 
free. It is your strength and not mine that can avail. 
Use it ! Use it ! And when once you have wrenched 
yourself free, just write me a line to that effect and 
give me your explicit promise to do all that I here 
ask you to do. 

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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

And you, too, my dear woman, who may not be in 
this precise environment, but find the symptoms befit- 
ting your state, remember that these words are ad- 
dressed to you. I pray you to let them sink deep into 
your consciousness and arouse you to strong action. 
You shall have a personal word of encouragement if 
you need it. 



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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 



Letter XXXI 



THOSE NERVES— Continued 

Case Four 

Here is a woman who has passed the third decade 
of life without marrying and is moving on towards 
that age dreaded by every sensitive woman, since it 
marks the close of her period of fresh beauty and 
bounding spirit. She is not too old to marry, and she 
must not consider herself so until she has turned 
sixty. So far as her feelings go she can discover no 
change. Indeed, she sometimes feels waves of more 
abundant life sweep through her organism as they 
never did before. And yet she reacts to the reflec- 
tion that the years are clambering over one another 
and life has neglected to assume its full significance. 
She has had much experience, but there are ehords 
in her nature which have never been struck. There 
is a slumbering song that no musician has yet awak- 
ened into tuneful melody. And this saddens her. 
Many a wakeful night has it come home to her with 
a sickening sense of reality. 

From such a woman the goal towards which she 

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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

has. looked with expectant eyes — the goal of a happy 
and useful domestic life — is fading from her hope. 
That is the root cause of the nervousness which re- 
cently has become a dominant state of consciousness. 
I do not blame her for feeling disappointed, for a 
woman must have an object upon which she can pour 
out her love as a sacred oblation, an altar at which 
she can offer the sacrifices of a sincere devotion. 

It is a period in a woman's life when she turns to 
serious contemplation. Until then she may not have 
considered with the same interest the various prob- 
lems which soon or late are thrust upon us all. For 
this reason it is a period when a woman with an in- 
quiring mind finds a new interest in those studies 
that bear upon the nature of man and his relations 
to others, the nature of God and man's relations to 
Him, and in pursuing them she is liable to learn 
some things which unsettle her former opinions and 
for a time set her more or less adrift. Other women 
of smaller mental caliber and shallower thought are 
caught up by some wave of enthusiasm and carried 
into the thrall of religious fanaticism. Whichever 
course is followed is settled by a kind of determinism 
rather than by deliberate purpose, and each bears 

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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

fruit after its kind. The wisdom that ought to guide 
us in all our deliberate acts is not always in imme- 
diate evidence, and yet one can think and act only 
according to the character of his mental content. 
What we already have determines our power to 
assimilate new ideas. 

My dear woman, though there is much in your 
environment to give you cause for self-felicitation, 
you pass it all by and continue miserable. So far as 
pleasure is concerned, you are in a better situation 
than the woman who is married to one she does not 
love. Far better. You do not know the grief of a 
sensitive nature who in marrying has missed union 
with a true mate. The door of life is still wide open 
for you. By winding way your own may be ap- 
proaching you at this very moment, and I want you 
to be sure that your faith is the magnet that shall 
draw him to you. But then while you are waiting 
and hoping — and you must not cease to do so while 
life lasts — that very faith, with its many fountains of 
joy, can make you one of the happiest of women. 
And then, too, the trial of your faith will spur you 
to deeper thinking and stronger acting. This life is 
but a day in your larger life, and if today sinks into 

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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

the arms of somber night while your realization still 
lingers on the way, you may be sure that not later 
than the morrow can its coming be deferred. 

So your lot is not so hard as it seems to casual 
view. You are being fitted for a realization that 
rises superior to anything you have fancied, if only 
you are giving yourself up without a murmur to the 
mellowing forces acting upon you. Make the hard 
experiences your aids to a larger life. Learn to love 
them. See in every trial an opportunity for 
advancement. 

Finally, make good use of all your opportunities 
to serve. I would not have you do for others what 
they would better do for themselves, but there are 
many minor services you can give and in giving 
them you will find both pleasure and profit. There 
is a deep satisfaction in finding that we are filling a 
useful place in the world. 

Do not think that I have wandered far afield in 
thus encouraging you to stronger and more servicea- 
ble living as a measure of relief from your nervous 
distresses, for I assure you that to do what I have 
advised will calm and tone your nerves and establish 
your mental poise. 

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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

You have felt as though you were in a cul-de-sac 
and could go no further. The joys of life have been 
shut off. The future has no promise of satisfaction 
in it. These are delusions, as you shall find if you 
follow the course I have marked out for you. It 
leads along the bright hill tops of life, where play 
the richest hues of the mellowing day. So, now 
onwards with the sunlight gladdening your face ! 



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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 



Letter XXXII 



THOSE NERVES— Continued 

Case Five 

There is nothing more disconcerting to a woman 
than to find herself bereft of her husband upon whom 
she had poured out her heart's best love. If death 
comes to him at the end of long weeks or months of 
illness, during which time life has been ebbing slowly 
and painfully, she receives at the end a legacy of 
fatigue and nervous exhaustion that plunges her into 
an acute neurasthenia. If the demise comes with 
startling suddenness, the attending shock is liable to 
overthrow all courageous resistance and level every 
bright hope. 

This is one of life's appalling tragedies. Though 
the thought of death may not appall, there is not one 
who remains unawed in the presence of dissolution. 
That Death will be sure to come our way, late or 
early, we know, but the divertissements of the present 
shut out our thoughts of his coming and make life 
livable. But when he comes to rob us of those who 

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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

have become a part of our lives, no wonder we are 
shocked and stunned; that we are left bleeding and 
languishing. 

If there are children left to the grief -stricken one, 
a dreadful sense of responsibility falls on her, and 
there is no one to share it with her. Friends always 
do what they can to lighten the burden, and from 
these kind offices the mourner derives a real but tem- 
porary support. Then follow the details of business 
readjustment, the clamors of creditors, some of them 
demanding, like old Shylock, the pound of flesh, the 
awakening, it may be, to startling financial situations 
attended by the red tape and delays of the law. 

But women suffer most at such times from their 
psychic wounds. Everything pertaining to their love- 
life is changed on short order. The whole organic 
program is for the time disarranged, and it is not 
any wonder that the nerves fly off at tangents. There 
"is no denying that much of the distress at such a 
period is inseparable from the catastrophe. In our 
condolences we urge the sufferer to be brave and 
strong, but one who deeply loves cannot be wholly so. 
Nor do I believe she should aim to be. A burst of 
grief is not only to be expected, but it ought to be 

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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

wisely encouraged. The most violent storms are soon- 
est past. Let grief have its time and place, but when 
it has spent its force, let the tears be dried, let the 
smile return, let the readjustment be made, and let 
a strong life be lived. I make no quarrel with early 
and temporary griefs, for these are normal. I can- 
not blame one for falling when he is stunned by a 
blow. It is only when one remains felled over long, 
yielding to the inertia of feeling and declining to 
rally his strong forces that I begin to scold. 

Such a situation as I have described is not often 
as desperate as it for the moment looks. The woman 
is still young, hope of a new alliance, even if it spring 
up early, is not to be denounced. Life is not long 
at the longest, and they are unwise who continue to 
sit and idly mourn over conditions that can be much 
mended. Only the unwise and the weak consent to 
remain useless and helpless under the power of sor- 
row. Sorrow should endure for a night, but let joy 
come in the morning. The social convention which 
puts a ban on perennial hope and shuts out life by 
artificial and meaningless taboos is to be ignored. 
Due respect is to be shown the memory of the de- 
parted, but all that is fictitious and formal, all that 

291 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

savors of disability and uselessness, all that is disin- 
tegrating to life and suffocative to well being ought 
to be put aside. "When I go out to sea," and am 
safely past "the bar/' I want those who truly love 
me, and whom I have loved, to lay aside their griefs 
and with the light of the morning in their faces go 
forth courageously to meet all the difficulties, the 
dangers, the joys of life, and to do so with a song 
upon their lips. 

And now to you, my dear patient, I want to ad- 
dress a few direct words of good cheer and strong 
command. Your days of profound grief ought now 
to be past. You have your life to live, and whether 
it be long or short, it will require the co-operation 
of all your strong forces and the support of all that 
goes to make life worth living. It is your duty to 
make your life effective. This you are now failing 
to do. Do not think me unfeeling because I urge 
you to cheerful action. You have my profound sym- 
pathy, and it is in a spirit of sympathy that I speak 
as I do. It is always mistaking to be ruled by our 
emotions. It is true that without them life would be 
colorless. They are an essential part of existence. 
We are all the better for running the gamut of feel- 
ing. But to remain long under the effects of a de- 

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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

pressing emotion is devitalizing. So if you love your 
children, to whom you owe a motherly duty, if you 
love your friends, whose cheerfulness you have no 
right to chill, if you regard your usefulness in life, 
and have a desire to retain your sanity and poise, 
then break away from this gloominess. 

This you say you would be glad to do if you only 
could. Ah, it is a lurking false pride and a sense 
of shame that you defer to. You think it would be 
wanton disregard of love to break from your grief. 
You have arrived at such a conclusion from falla- 
cious reasoning. You can become interested in life 
if you are willing to. Don't say that you cannot 
till you have at least tried. If you mock at these 
words, if they irritate or annoy you, then they are 
not for you. They will be welcome to those who are 
really trying to rise out of the ashes of their sorrow. 

You may plead that your lot is singularly hard. 
The years may have silvered your hair and furrowed 
your face. You have no children to care for, as they 
have married and you are left alone. It is a hard 
lot, but it offers you a great opportunity. I knew 
one just like you, and let me tell you what she did. 
She assumed a part of the struggle of another poor 
woman who had small children, giving her little 

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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

respites, cheerful counsel, inspiring suggestions such 
as I am giving you. She interested herself in cur- 
rent problems — political, domestic, social — and kept 
herself in the swim of life. Today, though still alone, 
and old, she is an inspiration to many lives and a 
welcome guest wherever she goes. She radiates sun- 
shine wherever duty or pleasure leads her. Her life 
was never so useful, her experiences were never so 
satisfying. 

As one thinketh so is she. Keep this truth before 
you. If you cannot control your mind as you would 
like to, set about acquiring the power. You can make 
your efforts fruitful by using the measures of self- 
persuasion, suggestion and command given in other 
letters of this collection. Enter into the spirit of 
modern life; keep up to date. These things mean 
much to one like you. To these should be added what 
you can never afford to ignore, the influence of a 
well-held ideal. See yourself as you would like to 
be, and insist on holding such a view whenever 
thought has occasion to return to self -contemplation. 
A well-held ideal has tremendous potency in it. 

A word to you also, aged one, who have been wid- 
owed when the years had begun to grow heavy. The 

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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

children now have their own interests, into which you 
are not expected to enter very deeply. You are 
thought out of date in your ideas of life, and it may 
be you are. You have been too free with your allu- 
sions to the good old ways of doing things. It has 
been hard for you to enter into the spirit of the 
new times. I do not wonder that you have thought 
yourself more or less "on the shelf." You need to 
brighten up a bit. Show the young people that you 
are still of their set — in spirit. I know it is hard to 
do so, but you will find things harder still if you 
do not do so. I fancy you have already found them 
so. Read and adopt the newer ideas. Why, I know 
a woman between ninety and a hundred years old 
who, finding herself getting fossilized in mind and 
body, resolutely turned over a new leaf about ten 
years ago and began her life record on a fresh page. 
She just drank in everything new that had uplift and 
spirit in it. In consequence her health and strength 
have much improved, her mind is clear, her heart is 
light and she is the brightness and good cheer of the 
household. She says she didn't begin to live until 
she made this change in her mental attitude. 



295 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 



Letter XXXIII 



THOSE NERVES— Continued 

Case Six 

Here is an invalid. She has been unable to be 
about like other women for years. She spends most 
of her time in bed. She is weak, distressed, discour- 
aged. Whenever she gets on her feet and begins to 
walk, and usually when she even sits up for a few 
minutes, her distress is increased. A sense of pros- 
tration is continually with her. She has little appe- 
tite, her food often gives her pain, and the bowels 
are obstinately constipated. There is also much 
distress in the pelvic region. 

She attributes the cause of the disorder which has 
brought her low to a period of overexertion.' She 
had never been very strong, but was fairly comforta- 
ble until her mother's long sickness, during which 
she was obliged to act as nurse or assistant. She had 
succeeded in maintaining her poise and self-command 
so well that encomiums were heaped upon her, but 
at the close of the siege she was a wreck. That was 

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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

several years ago, but she is still suffering the effects 
of what she then passed through. Or, instead of 
this she was subjected to a dreadful shock occasioned 
by finding that her husband, whom she had trusted 
and loved with all her heart, had been unfaithful to 
her. In consequence she was plunged into the very 
depths of despair, chagrin and anger, and she is now 
sure that she can never wholly recover from the ef- 
fects of the horrid experience. Or, again, it may be 
that she lost a lover on whom she had centered her 
affection and has been a mourner ever since, or her 
son or daughter went wrong; her husband became a 
bankrupt and she had to give up her happy social 
life. Nearly all these invalids attribute their phys- 
ical downfall to some special experience that shocked 
their emotional nature to its very center or that 
drained them of all their vitality. 

While this is a common history of invalidism in 
general, it should be known that the events acting, 
as it is believed, as the moving cause of the over- 
throw are such only because they found the organism 
in a peculiarly susceptible state and all ready to be 
seriously disordered by them. In other words, one 
whose resistance is normal would come through such 
an experience somewhat fatigued or worried very 

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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

likely, but would soon become readjusted and 
stronger than ever because of the reaction excited at 
the centers. The causes of susceptibility are to be 
found chiefly in heredity and early training. Chil- 
dren of nervous temperaments, instead of being sub- 
jected to a rigorous discipline and inured to the ad- 
versities of life, are inordinately loved and petted by 
their parents, protected from contact with the un- 
pleasant features incident to early environment, and 
encouraged to move in lines of small resistance, with 
consequent underdevelopment of hardy qualities. 
Many of them are only children whose lives are 
spoiled by coddling indulgence. 

A singular feature of these people is that they uni- 
formly think, or pretend to, that they were treated 
in a most unfeeling way. They insist that nothing 
was ever done for them, in the very face of the fact 
that they were surfeited with kindness. 

So now when a rigorous regime is established, as 
it must be in order to rescue them from their wretch- 
edness and inefficiency, they rebel most energetically. 
It is difficult to secure their hearty co-operation. 
They aver that their natures are intolerant of author- 
ity, insist on being treated with the utmost softness 

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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

and on being allowed to have their own way. It is 
true that they cannot be driven into health. In some 
way their affectional natures must be reached and 
their confidence obtained. When that has been done 
they will submit to every essential rigor and cooperate 
to good advantage. In the application of self-help like 
that outlined in these letters, if they are once won 
to the reasonableness and power of the treatment, 
then by making these letters their guide and compan- 
ion, their counsel and support, it will be possible for 
them to make a successful application of the prin- 
ciples set forth therein. But it may require a strong 
hand to break the power of the morbid spell encasing 
them and bring them to obedience. A friend may be 
able to do this — one full of love as well as resolution. 
This having been done, the same strong hand will be 
needed to sustain and that same loving and resolute 
heart to inspire and encourage the faltering one and 
bring her to safe ground. 

In most instances of chronic invalidism the ailment 
is primarily and essentially a 'psychic one. The le- 
sions, if there are any, are consequent upon the orig- 
inal nerve derangement and will yield to a rational 
psychotherapy if faithfully applied. 

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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

And now, my dear patient, a word directly to you. 
Your day of deliverance draws near. You have been 
an invalid long enough. Let the incredulous smile 
if they will, but I mean what I say when I assure 
you that you can get well if you are only determined 
to. Believe it with all your heart, act up to that be- 
lief, and you shall see. You have unwittingly acted 
an irrational part. You have done so through igno- 
rance, and I have come to give you saving knowledge. 
It will be hard for you to accept it, for you are full 
of your own notions and the false ideas given you 
by some of your well-meaning but unwise physicians. 
These notions have brought you where you are, and 
you ought to be ready to part with them. You have 
your theories of possible cure, but they have not done 
much for you, have they ? You are under the power 
of your own body, which was designed to be your 
servant and not your master. Deny its authority! 
Affirm your power. Kise to authority. You do not 
need to lie in bed another day. Your feelings, your 
sensations, your emotions have you spellbound. The 
chances are nine to one that you are being outwitted 
by them. As organized complexes they are intelli- 
gent and cunning. In truth, they are acting an inde- 
pendent and disorderly part as seceders from the 

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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

authority of your aggregate self. You will elsewhere 
find what I mean by this dissociate, this factional 
action. It is a split in your personality, and it is 
playing a subtle and delusive trick. Break from its 
power by recalling it to harmonious union with the 
other parts of your composite organism. You have 
authority to do this, and all you have to do is to use 
it with confidence, intelligence and unwavering firm- 
ness. Will you do it ? Will you now rise and declare 
your right to health in defiance of all your fears 
and distresses? Begin to make your powers obey. 
Command them. Insist upon acting the part of a 
well woman. I do not advise you to get up and go 
shopping the first day, for your muscular system 
has become weak through lack of exercise. But 
" arise and walk" — not very far the first time, but 
progressively further. You can do it if you will, I 
say, and you can get well unless it is some malignant 
disease that has brought you low. The chances are, 
I insist, as nine to one that you have no disease that 
need confine you to your bed. If you have pain on 
rising, "read the riot act" to it, and then walk all 
over it. This lying abed for months and years be- 
cause it hurts you to rise is subordinating your god- 
like powers to the domination of mere feeling. 

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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

Do what I tell you to with courage and resolution 
and confidence for a few days and then write me the 
results, telling me whether you are still resolved to 
go on or not. A written pledge will steady your 
purpose and confirm your courage. 



302 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 



Letter XXXIV 



PSYCHASTHENIA 

When neurasthenia develops in one of a pro- 
nounced nervous temperament it is usually attended 
not alone by the ordinary stigmata of the disease, 
such as fatigability, sensibility, insomnia and such 
like expressions, but is characterized also by aston- 
ishing phobias or fears of various kinds, which sig- 
nify a weakness of the will and derangement of other 
psychic functions. The condition has therefore been 
called psychasthenia. 

One thus afflicted finds that he dreads to do certain 
things and to put himself into certain situations. For 
example, he finds himself beset with the physical 
sensations of fear, many times of a most overwhelm- 
ing and paralyzing intensity, whenever he ascends 
to a height, rides on a swift-moving train, or even 
looks out upon broad expanses of space. In our cities 
such a patient can sometimes scarcely be prevailed 
upon to ride on the elevated roads, and some of them 
have become so enthralled by fear that they dare not 

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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

go far from their homes. They avoid the current 
news of the day for fear of waking some new fear 
or of aggravating an old one. They are without con- 
fidence in themselves, depreciating their powers and 
influence to the last degree. 

These phobias are recognized by them as most irra- 
tional. Even with their eyes closed, they may go 
almost into hysterics over a consciousness of being 
on an upper floor in a large building, though unable 
at the moment to get an outside view. The conscious- 
ness of being there itself is enough to distress. Such 
an one is not afraid he will fall and upbraids himself 
for his foolishness. He is distressed by the mere 
sensations which have associated themselves with par- 
ticular states of consciousness. Merely to look up- 
wards at a high building from the sidewalk makes 
him shudder. In riding on a swift-moving train he 
does not fear an accident. He may even confess that 
to be killed would be a relief. He merely dreads the 
sensations which certain things evoke. He is clear- 
headed and capable, as a rule, but fears to trust his 
own judgment or to undertake responsibilities. 

As a consequence, such patients are continually 
moving in lines offering small resistance, and gradu- 

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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

ally lose their strong qualities. Their state thus be- 
comes most pitiable. For example, I was at one time 
called to see a man who gave a most harrowing ac- 
count of his experiences. He had been in a psychas- 
thenic state for about eight years, and as a result of 
an increasing weakness of will he had abandoned 
business five years previously. By degrees he had 
grown worse, so that for three years he could not be 
persuaded to go any distance from home. His resi- 
dence was only five or six blocks from my own. In 
the course of the talk I explained to him my aversion 
to visiting patients at their homes, and sought to ar- 
range for his coming to see me for a series of treat- 
ments. The colloquy, which was most amusing, ran 
something like this : 

"I don't see how I can go so far, doctor," he pro- 
tested. 

"It can do you no harm to go that short distance. 
You can easily walk it in ten minutes." 

"You don't seem to understand. I know the phys- 
ical exertion will not hurt me, but I'm afraid to get 
so far from home. That may sound foolish to you, 
but it's true." 

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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

"Then take your wife with you for company. If 
you dislike to walk all the way, take the car at Forty- 
seventh street." 

"Ride on a car?" he exclaimed in consternation. 
"Why, yes, of course. Why not ?" 
"I can't ride on a car." 
"Then call a cab for the first time or two." 
"Man alive, nothing would induce me to get into a 
cab." 

Taking him by the arm I said in stern tones : 

"This nonsense must stop. Come with your wife 
in the morning without another word. Do you think 
I shall spend my efforts on a man who won't do that 
much for himself?" 

He came, and ultimately became a useful and 
happy business man again. But when he appeared 
on that first occasion he looked like a frightened hare. 

I want to assure you, my reader, who may be suf- 
fering in a similar way, that you are being dread- 
fully imposed upon by your foolish fears. There is 
really nothing to fear. You suffer those nervous 
sensations which you translate into fear because of 
the law of association of ideas. There is no neces- 

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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

sary connection between the thing you do and the 
thing you feel, except that automatically and 
psychically established. 

But you have been doing nothing hard for so long 
that your weakened will does not hold you. You have 
lost your grip on strength and must have the assist- 
ance of the kind of help to be found in these letters 
for a time to hold you to the task of self-extrication. 
So keep this book near you. Study it much. Sleep 
with it under your pillow, if you like. Make it a 
close companion — a fetish. You cannot overcome 
without a long and hard struggle, so don't be looking 
for magical deliverance. Now don't turn away and 
protest that I discourage you. I do not ; I'm telling 
you the facts in the case and you may as well face 
them. You can get well, but you will have to become 
a man in doing so. You can't play infant any longer. 
But remember I do not hesitate to assure you of full 
success if you follow my directions. You don't need 
to go into details to convince me that you are a great 
sufferer. You do not have to assure me so often 
that your trouble does not grow out of the imagina- 
tion. I am better aware of this than many who have 
not laughed at your distresses. Psychasthenia is just 

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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

as much a disease as is smallpox or scarlet fever. It 
it merely up to you to be a strong man, or to remain 
a poor, worthless, despicable weakling. 

"But the doctors tell me," you say, "that the 
trouble is an organic one, and requires something 
more than psychic treatment. They say my nerves 
are in a state of malnutrition, and that I must rest 
a good deal and favor myself in every possible way. 
Doctor, you don't know how weak I am." Oh, yes, 
my dear fellow, I know all about it. I know, too, 
that to follow the advice those well-meaning doctors 
give you will be worse than useless. The ailment 
is essentially psychoneurotic, and the sense of ex- 
haustion and the other feelings are consequent on 
the loss of mental stamina. The more you favor 
yourself, the more you will have to. What you must 
do is to assume control of your whole organism and 
enforce upon it normal behavior. There is no use 
in warring against the fears and sensations by direct 
assault. They thrive on attention, and the more you 
dignify them, the more insistent will they become. 
You must ignore them. What I mean by that is 
that you must resolutely refuse to let them exercise 
authority over your action. You must act the part 

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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

of a normal man, irrespective of the feelings. You 
may think that an easy thing to do, but you will find 
it exceedingly hard. So don't be overconfident of 
quick success, as that might lead you into despair. I 
do not believe in setting limitations to the action of 
curative energy; L merely recognize that the cure 
must progress according to law. If the trouble were 
wholly imaginary, the situation would be very differ- 
ent, but you have a real pathological condition to 
overcome, and it will have to be controlled according 
to law. It is a psychoneurosis and does not present 
organic complications or changes, but it is a disease 
just the samej and has to be treated as such. It is, 
however, a disorder amenable only to mental means 
of cure. 

Argue the points with yourself, but be sure to take 
the side of self-command. Bring before your con- 
sciousness repeatedly the irrationality of the feelings 
and the violence you are doing your moral nature in 
submitting to their domination. It will be necessary 
to do this times without number in order to get per- 
manent results. These phobias and other aberrations 
are deep seated and their channels are well worn, so 
that rapid changes of a permanent kind are out of 
question. But they are none the less certain, pro- 

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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

vided the efforts continue unrelaxed. Above all, you 
must bring to bear the full force of your will to main- 
tain a consistent and defiant manner towards these 
fears. Like a good soldier, you must be willing to 
suffer when by so doing you can win. The feelings, 
since they represent dissociated parts of your own in- 
telligence, will resort to all sorts of expedients to 
hold your morbid attention and make you susceptible, 
so there exists all the greater reason for your being 
stoical and inattentive. As soon as you can acquire a 
spirit of indifference to their attacks you will pass 
from under their power. 

Autosuggestions 

Now for some autosuggestions which you are to 
use faithfully every day. 

I fear not. These weak feelings and tense tremors 
cannot harm me. 

My impulse is to run, but I restrain myself; to 
avoid doing certain things, but I do them ; to shrink 
from bearing certain responsibilities, but I bear 
them. 

Come what will, I intend to command my actions. 

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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

Let the sensations come, let the feelings arise, let the 
emotions sweep over me, I shall not be disconcerted 
by them. I am bound to be master. 

I see myself strong, well and fearless. I will not 
doubt my ability, my health, my courage. 

My will has fallen into a state of denutrition, but 
it comes to my relief, and I shall use it to the limit. 
My reinforced courage has already made it stronger. 

I am resolved to maintain this strong attitude to- 
wards my fears and ill feelings. My success in self- 
recovery depends on this. Though relief should delay 
indefinitely, I shall not waver. I am going through 
on this line, no matter what may oppose. 

I am fully persuaded that success shall crown my 
efforts at last. 

Again I resolutely cast aside my fears, and I do 
so with a smile of confidence. 

I do not expect to attain at a single stride. I am 
willing to struggle since (1)1 know that success shall 
attend my efforts, and (2) I am assured that this 
severe trial shall develop my faculties. 



311 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 



Letter XXXV 



UNSETTLED RELIGIOUS FAITH 

Into the lives of all who think and read there 
come periods of serious religious and philosophical 
reflection. The various stages of physical life, such 
as those of puberty, of motherhood and of the climac- 
teric, are attended in most people by a more or less 
deep consideration of human relationship to the Un- 
seen Power that appears somehow to shape events. 
In close relationship to that phase of thought, and 
also demanding serious consideration, is the question 
of social relationship." The two go hand in hand. It 
has been clearly enough shown to those who give at- 
tention that there is also a close relationship between 
religion and sexuality. At puberty both boys and 
girls grow more serious and reflective. Creative im- 
pulses begin to stir within them, prompting them to' 
question life's phenomena and to learn something re- 
garding "how" and "why." Then again in the re- 
productive period, when two unite their energies in 
creative action and the cherished fruit thereof is be- 
fore them, they both ask, "What does all this mean V 9 

312 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

Finally, when sexual energy diminishes, and the cre- 
ative faculty wanes, a more prolonged and profound 
consideration of these subjects becomes uppermost. 
It is observable that the religious impulses are not 
so likely to be heterodoxical in character as are the 
sexual. It is when one has attained to age and ex- 
perience that one asks for the solid truths and the 
substantial facts of life. Occasionally one does so 
at an earlier period and becomes much concerned 
about them. Ideas of God are apt to change mate- 
rially. The God of later life is not often the God of 
earlier years. Life itself in consequence has a 
different meaning. 

The free thought of the times favors this change. 
People are doing more independent thinking than 
ever before. Religious dogmas have not the author- 
ity they once had. The old statements of faith fall 
on skeptical ears and touch unresponsive emotions. 
And yet there are enough of the old impressions left 
in the minds of those religiously inclined to keep one 
who is advancing along the newer lines a bit "at sea" 
for a time. The revulsive effects of such a mental 
turmoil as is often set up are unsettling to the nerves 
of sensitive people. I recently had under my care 
one of the leading theological teachers of the country 

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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

who had become badly unhinged nervously by the 
conflict between conviction of truth and his relations 
to the public as a teacher and leader. His faith in 
the old tenets had so crumbled that he was troubled 
to discern his proper course. He feared the effect 
on certain weak minds of a frank avowal of his con- 
victions, while the spirit of truth was crowding for 
utterance. Many people are in a similar situation. 
I, myself, went through similar mental stress with 
respect both to medicine and theology before arriving 
at solid ground, and therefore can sympathize with 
those who are in transit. 

It is mental conflict that creates nervous disturb- 
ance, and this can be subdued only by mental and 
spiritual means. One has to grow strong enough to 
follow truth wherever it leads in order to escape 
the thralldom of nerves. There is a large residuum 
of weakness abroad, and those who share it are sure 
to get hurt. One's greatest safety lies in the direc- 
tion of mental strength and courage. A temporizing 
policy is always disintegrating in its effects. Neu- 
rasthenia not infrequently finds its immediate source 
in these religious and moral conflicts and they have 
to be settled as a condition of relief. It is for this 
reason that the psychotherapist finds it necessary to 

314 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

discuss with most of his patients religious, social and 
domestic questions. In many instances the sex ques- 
tion is the disturbing one, and until it is put upon a 
firm basis of conviction and the conflict thus ended, 
relief of the nervous symptoms cannot be expected. 

And now a more personal word to needy ones. 

You are seeking to know the truth, believing that 
the truth shall make you free. Free from what? 
From the domination of fear, under the spell of 
which you, in common with the great bulk of hu- 
manity, are held. The world goes groaning under 
the distresses proceeding from these demoralizing 
emotions. You want to ally yourself with the con- 
trolling forces and thus find protection, and so in the 
past you have cried frantically into resounding space 
for help and have sometimes found it. But the 
rationale of the thing has not been clear to you, and 
therefore you have been seeking a better theology and 
a more explicit understanding. 

In your search you have reached a point where 
the old opinions look puerile; you are unable longer 
to accept them as reasonable. On the other hand, 
you are told that your puny reason cannot expect to 
apprehend the truth, since truth is "spiritually dis- 

315 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

cerned," and so you have hesitated until you have 
momentarily lost your confidence and fallen back into 
the old beliefs. But you could not rest there and the 
see-saw has been kept up until your nerves are in 
high tension. 

Then, too, you have found that a relaxation of 
your faith in scriptural inspiration of a plenary sort 
sets aside the authority of ethical codes and allows 
you possible liberties not hitherto even contemplated 
and this startles you. You reflect that you cannot 
afford to live under the limitations set by human 
authority if they clip your wings and forbid your 
far flights, and you fear that they do just that. You 
find "a law in your members" which resents the re- 
straints laid upon you by religious dogmas, and are 
unwilling to believe that + here can be- enmity between 
the physical and the spiritual, from which you de- 
duce that someone who claims to know must have 
erred. At any rate, you question. These seem 
like momentous matters, and your mental perturba- 
tion is in proportion to your estimate of their im- 
portance. So there you are, wretchedly unsettled. 
The natural impulses, representing a vital urge, in- 
crease in force and you are at your wits' end. 

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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

I shall not hope to settle jour questions for you. 
I can only give you the general principles upon which 
they must be settled and aid you to apply them. "Be 
fully persuaded in your own mind" — that is of para- 
mount importance. But I shall assure you that no 
fatal errors can be made while you are following the 
way which opens before you, provided you make your 
actions match rules of reason. One may wisely fol- 
low intuitions, and be governed by tenets that tran- 
scend reason, but never those which controvert it. 
This is a nice distinction that I want you to get. 

Then I bid you cease worrying about your course, 
for you cannot get into inextricable trouble in fol- 
lowing the guidance of your own good sense. You 
may meet trials and adversities of all sorts, but if 
your faith waver not, you will surely come at last 
into the coveted "broad place." Anxiety only com- 
plicates matters, for it keeps your nerves on edge 
and moves you to pernicious action. Do not get dis- 
couraged. Keep your purposes good. Aspire to 
larger and better conditions and expect them. God 
is always on the side of courage. It is the weakling 
who gets hurt; the fearless come through unscathed. 
Remember that the strong way is always the best way. 

Settle all life's problems by the rule of reason. 
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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

Keason always takes the rights and interests of others 
into account. You have no right to harm another, 
though you may sometimes hurt their feelings. The 
best of us sometimes suffer in pride and selfish love 
with decided benefit. Bitter draughts now and then 
do us good. Do whatever your larger self leads you 
to do. Whatever enlarges, uplifts and tones us in 
mind and body, whatever stimulates us to energetic 
doing, can't be wrong. Neither can 'it do anybody 
true injury in the final accounting. 

Settle your questions for yourself. Don't go about 
asking promiscuous advice. Be earnest, be honest, 
be sincere, be resolute, be open-minded and be posi- 
tive. Act from conviction. Do nothing that you re- 
gard as wrong and then plead inability to have done 
otherwise. You can control your actions. Let each 
one of them, then, be full of thought and purpose. 

Do things in this way and your positive attitudes 
will bring those nerves into good order and your 
whole life into a state of strength and comfort. 

Autosuggestions 

Select what you need from the following sugges- 
tions and affirmations. Add to them some of your 
own: 

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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

I fear nothing. I dread nothing. 

My courage is equal to every emergency. 

I have been following the light of truth. Then 
why should I falter ? 

Let darkness and doubt come at times if they will. 
Through them I shall go to better things. 

My soul hungers and thirsts after wisdom, truth, 
knowledge. 

I have broken from the faith of my earlier years 
because it grew weak and childish in my eyes. It 
failed to feed me and I was driven to seek nourish- 
ment farther afield. 

I am sure that my feet are in the right way. I 
have not yet attained, but am pushing onwards. 

Sometimes I weep as I go, but at least I "shall 
come again with rejoicing, bringing my sheaves with 
me." 

There is often "the cry of the flesh" in me. I feel 
the stirring of strong life. I wonder. I bate my 
breath and wait. Is it life ? I believe it is. So I 

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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

welcome it, heeding only to make sure of its place 
and accompaniments. 

"He who would gather immortal palms must not 
be hindered by the name of goodness, but must ex- 
plore if it be goodness." 

"It is only as a man puts off all foreign support 
and stands alone that I see him to be strong and to 
prevail." 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 



Letter XXXVI 



FINANCIAL WORRIES 

Women are thrown into mental depression and 
nervous disorders most frequently by impingements 
of adverse conditions on their love nature. Unre- 
quited, spurned, or betrayed love, faithlessness in a 
lover, or his death, are the commonest causes. A mere 
suspicion, sometimes without sufficient excuse, is 
enough, in certain women, to set up distressing ner- 
vous states. Not so with men, save in rare instances. 
In them the immediate cause of such states is re- 
lated more or less directly' to a different emotion, 
namely, pride; and the wound of their pride is in- 
flicted by sudden losses or by persistent failure to 
make a good business showing. In women, love is 
the leading feature of life, while in man it is busi- 
ness. Women cannot live happily and healthily with- 
out love, and man cannot without an encouraging 
business. Just as there are some women without love, 
so there are some men without financial ambition and 
pride ; but in both cases they are exceptional. 

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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

Here is a man who has been a hard worker from 
youth up. After spending twenty years in hard 
service in the business world, accumulating money 
and acquiring a good trade, the money market gets 
close at a time when his collections are slow and 
uncertain and the bulk of business has fallen below 
normal for a twelve-month. He finds himself in need 
of more money to meet current demands, and is not 
only refused it by the banks, but a demand is made 
for a reduction of his present line of credit. This 
marks the beginning of a rapid business decline which 
ends in a crash. His pride suffers so severely from 
the rebuff that he loses all hold on his courage and 
self-reliance and cannot muster enough force again 
to enter upon active business. He is ashamed to 
assume a position in another house, and dares not 
again resume activity on his own account. He is 
only fifty-five, but he well knows that his associates 
pity him and predict his inability to come back. He 
probably could, but he has not the confidence to try. 
And so he stays about the house with the family, with 
nothing important to do. After a time his daughters 
get business situations and assume the support of 
the family. He is too proud to reappear among his 
business friends, but he is not too proud to let his 

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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

daughters toil hard to humor his want of moral 
courage. I have seen many such men, on some of 
whom my words of reproof and encouragement have 
had no appreciable effect. Their moral courage has 
all run away. They are shells of men out of which 
the real man long ago perished. The situation is full 
of pathos. 

To the idle man who has any pride left in him I 
want to say a word. I have seen many men much 
like you, to some of whom it seems useless to make 
an appeal; but you have not yet reached that stage. 
I am sorry to know that you have shown so little 
spirit ; that, while sound in mind and body, you loaf 
instead of working. You say you can't get a place 
suited to your ability, and in the same breath you 
declare that you will take nothing less. Oh, what 
weakness and folly ! You are assuming a very wrong 
attitude. For heaven's sake do something, if it be 
nothing more than soliciting life insurance. There 
are many honorable things you can do for fair pay 
if you are willing to do them. I assure you anybody 
would consider it far more manly for you to get busy. 
Redeem your reputation before it is too late. 

Autosuggestions 

Use the following suggestions and hammer them 
in. You will need the stimulation they give. 

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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

I am ashamed of the indifference, the tameness, 
the weakness and inefficiency which have character- 
ized my course. 

My pride spurs me to action. Why should a man 
in good enough health give way to mere feeling as 
I have been doing ? I was badly thrown, to be sure, 
but that is no excuse for my remaining down; so 
now "I will arise." 

Strength and courage characterize a real man. 
They shall characterize me. Make a note of what 
I say. 

I can find some useful labor, and I will. 

I am master of my forces. 

The minor ailments, the nervous sensibility and 
irritability, the sense of fatigue, the sleeplessness are 
due to my lack of self-command and will leave when 
once I become a useful man. I have been getting 
my just deserts. 

ISTow I am crowding out fear with faith. Mistrust 
of my powers has held me down. Now I believe. 

I want to die with my clothes on. When again I 
become useless and meaningless let me die. 

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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

More abundant life is coming in. 

These resolutions are not the caprices of the hour 
or day. They have come to stay. I am renewed in 
the spirit of my mind. 

There are many men who allow the fear of failure 
to paralyze their effectiveness. So solicitous are they 
that they repel those who would otherwise become 
good customers or come into other profitable relations 
to them. Worry is fear, and fear is our worst enemy. 

Go on worrying, my dear fellow, and you will 
make a fine mess of your business. Be energetic and 
confident, be strong and courageous and you will suc- 
ceed. Let a prospect get an idea from your manner 
that, while you should be pleased to interest him in 
what you have to offer, that your business success is 
assured without his aid, and he will be far more eager 
to ally himself with you. Act as though you have 
no axe to grind, and then grindstones without num- 
ber will be offered you. Customers run when you 
appear too eager to catch them. 

So turn down your fears and put plenty of ginger 
into your thinking and doing, along with a bunch of 
confidence and courage. 

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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

Autosuggestions 

Tell yourself many times a day, I fear nothing. 
I dread nothing. 

Industry, enthusiasm and determination can make 
a success of me, and these I am full of. 

In my fancy I see myself surrounded with the evi- 
dences of success. This ideal I am resolutely and 
confidently holding. 

Business is not what it ought to be; funds are 
running low ; but my needs shall be met in some way. 

Should I lose in one direction I shall gain in 
others. Compensation shall be established. 

My confidence is supreme. All is well, and all 
shall continue well. 

Financial loss falls with peculiar weight on a man's 
selfish pride. Out of the large number who suffer 
heavy loss there are few who greatly fear being 
brought to serious want. In this day of immense 
activity and enterprise a man who has a will to work 
can always find employment at sufficient compensa- 
tion to provide the necessaries attached to plain liv- 
ing. But the injury to one's standing in the eyes of 

326 



I 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

others — the humiliation of having others look on 
with pity mingled with a sense of superiority — this 
is what galls. Yet the pathology of all of us is such 
at certain stages in life that a dose of this bitter 
medicine of failure is needed for our purification and 
regulation. "But see what hardships it puts on my 
family!" they exclaim. "I wanted my son to go 
through college, and my daughter to have the advan- 
tages of a school for young ladies; and I shall be 
unable to send them. Oh, wretched man that I am !" 
It must be that these dear men have forgotten how 
many times they have boasted of what they were com- 
pelled to do for themselves, and how wholesome had 
been the effect. "What's worth while in a boy," they 
have maintained, "is always best brought out by 
adversity" ; which is notably true ; and now they are 
mourning because what is worth while in their chil- 
dren may have a good opportunity to come out. 

Here is some good moral buckram from Emerson : 
"And yet the compensations of calamity are made 
apparent to the understanding after long intervals 
of time. A fever, a mutilation, a cruel disappoint- 
ment, a loss of wealth, a loss of friends, seems at the 
moment unpaid loss, and unpayable; but the sure 

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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

years reveal the deep remedial force which underlies 
all facts. The death of a dear friend, wife, brother, 
lover, husband, which seemed nothing but privation, 
somewhat later assumes the aspect of a guide or 
genius, for it commonly operates revolution in our 
life — terminates an epoch of infancy or of youth 
which was waiting to be closed, or a household, or a 
style of living, and allows formation of new ones 
more friendly to the growth of character." 

My dear fellow, you are suffering the acute pain 
of a recent calamitous financial loss. All suffering 
"seems for the moment grievous." It is always hard 
to bear. To many a loss like yours seems worse than 
death. Indeed, you have felt since this blow fell 
that you should like to die. But that is a weak and 
cowardly thought, and you must put it aside with 
the flat of your strong hand. Should you like to win 
the admiration of all your friends and acquaintances, 
so as to turn humiliation into triumph? Then de- 
mean yourself like a man — a strong man. Let no 
one see from vour actions that the blow has reached 
your spirit. Avoid a long face, but do not avoid 
your friends. Meet them with a smile and make no 
allusion to your loss. If you are compelled to make 

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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

some changes in your mode of living, make them 
with the air of a man who is acting from motives 
of advisability, rather than necessity. Eemember 
that your creditors and your bankers are attentively 
watching the effect of this reverse upon you. If they 
see you standing calm and self-possessed and confi- 
dent, as the smoke clears away, you will inspire them 
with trust in your ability to "come back," and they 
will be ready to lend you a helping hand. You can 
make good if you will. 

Autosuggestions 

Use these suggestions and avail yourself of the 
other means of help applicable to those whose organ- 
isms need support to be found in other letters. 

A man is not really defeated until he confesses 
himself defeated. 

"No one attains to the heights without setbacks, 
hindrances, adversities and calamities. Over and 
through them one must go to success. 

I have had a stunning fall but I shall not sit here 
and rub my bruises any longer. My bones and my 
spirit are not broken. 

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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

Keep your eye on me, you who have smiled, half 
glad, when I fell, and see where I land. "My head 
is bloodv, but unbowed." I'll not be thrown in the 
same way again. I have had my experience. Yours 
may not be far away. 

I merely ask my creditors for a good chance to 
demonstrate my ability. I shall make good. I have 
just begun to fight. 

~No unnecessary delays. I shall begin again on 
the morrow. 



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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 



Letter XXXVII 



THE ADVANCING YEARS 

As people grow older they begin to look for the 
changes and infirmities that commonly go with age; 
and if their imagination is large and active, as imag- 
ination is apt to be in those who are alarmed or 
anxious, they will be sure to find them. 

The thought that one is entering a period of life 
in which there commonly is dwindling physical 
energy is not a pleasant one, and it is not surprising 
that a certain degree of suspicion insensibly attaches 
itself to every disturbing symptom, especially if it 
be disposed to become protracted. Failing eyesight 
carries consternation to some sensitive persons, and 
an interruption of the menses brings home in a dis- 
heartening way to women the fact that they are 
reaching the years of lapsing generative power. 

There are doubtless reminders enough of accumu- 
lated years for those who are passing the mileposts 
of middle and later life to keep them advised of 
oncoming loss of vigor; but such people do them- 

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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

selves a wrong in attributing diminished vision, the 
climacteric, and lessened endurance to a decay of 
energy. As in youth the body undergoes certain 
changes in form and structure, in spirit and strength, 
to fit it for the physiological requirements incident 
to the restless activities of early life, just so does 
the body change in form and texture as it feels the 
vital activities relaxing their demands. What I mean 
is that these changes do not necessarily indicate dis- 
integration, but rather adaptation to a change of re- 
quirements. The movements of a man are slow and 
limited as compared with the movements of a romp- 
ing, quick-eyed boy. Function determines demand. 

Prolonging Life 

That it is possible to modify a physiological ac- 
tion of this kind and thereby protract the period of 
one's vigor and activity is as positive as that it is 
possible by mental and physical cooperation to hasten 
the development of mental and physical energy. It 
is a poor rule that will not work both ways. 

Let me tell you how this is to be done. That it 
cannot be done to an extreme degree in every case 
I am free to admit, since there are some organisms of 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

so inferior texture, others so loosely and unskillfully 
woven, and still others so weakened and broken by 
misuse that no stable rallying ground can be found. 
It will then be understood that what I am about to 
say concerning the preservation of physical health 
and strength in what are commonly known as declin- 
ing years, has reference to an organism which is in a 
fair state of endurance and resistance. 

Minds and bodies rust out oftener than they wear 
out. If not positively lazy, we are apt to become 
indolent as we get older. Coming into repeated con- 
tact with the serious and difficult things of life has 
a tendency to make us sedate, — to rob us of a willing 
expression of youthful feelings which would other- 
wise adhere to us. All of us are younger in spirits 
than in expression. There is a convention which says 
that we should become more deliberate in manner as 
we grow older, which, if indulged, is sure to reduce 
our energies. There is no doubt that, were we to 
continue our childish activities, were we to romp and 
play with all the enthusiasm of youth, till seventy 
or eighty, we should find the signs of diminished 
vigor which usually set in at forty-five or fifty de- 
ferred to a point much nearer the century mark. 
Hereditary tendencies have a mighty compelling 

333 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

power over us, but the action of human volition, 
rightly exercised, is capable of successfully combat- 
ing them. 

Let the mind and body be trained to persistent 
activity. Let the spirit continue strong. Let the 
motto be, "Over the graves, forwards !" It is in- 
dividual achievement that should be sought, and he 
who pauses to mourn overmuch because of any human 
misfortune is liable to be caught in the maelstrom 
of decadence and go down. 

What About Motive Power? 

But what about motive power ? Men and women 
fail because their spirits flag. How can drooping 
spirits be sustained? 

The requisite is abundant life; and life abounds 
where there is persistent activity. A life of ease is 
not conducive to longevity. The period of useful- 
ness and the period of greatest enjoyment are co- 
existent and coextensive. As soon as an individual 
or a nation finds its greatest eagerness to be for 
mental and physical delight, just that soon does it 
begin to decay. Let him beware who says, (C I have 
been a hard worker these many years, and now I am 

334 






MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

going to settle down to enjoy life." Senility of the 
worst sort awaits all such. There must be a healthy 
balance between work and play up to the last. 

It remains for me more plainly to indicate how 
waning interests can be awakened and sustained in 
old age, and then I shall desist for a time. Here is 
the rule: Get out of the ruts. Start something new. 
Be willing to assume fresh responsibilities and to 
take on new enterprises. Dont say, "I am old." 
Those who have lived the longest and happiest are 
those who have cast aside all thought of age and have 
acted as though they expected to live forever. Waken 
new ambitions; find new loves; form new alliances; 
associate ivith those who are active and well instead 
of sitting round with the old folks who are disposed 
to live in the past; refuse to think of death, no mat- 
ter what your pious friends may say about preparing 
for the end. The best preparation for death is the 
living of an active, strong, cheerful life, in which 
there are few of the old-fashioned religious hymns of 
the "I would not live always," and "Only waiting for 
the boatman" type. 

In short, if you don't want to go into a senility 
which flows in rapid stream towards death, be reso- 

335 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

lutely young in thought and action, no matter if you 
can't see quite as well as you once did, and no matter 
if your legs are not quite as limher as they once were. 

Giving Life Signification 

? Tis life of which our nerves are scant; 
More life, and fuller, that we want. 

From the viewpoint of the individual, human life 
is a state of consciousness. Each brain, with its 
aptitudes and subtle complexes, is a study. Life 
differs in its essences as individuals differ. Marcus 
Aurelius said, "Nothing matters.' 7 Emerson called 
the world "divine." Schopenhauer said it "smells 
of grave-mold." Spinoza declared, "Nothing shall 
disturb me." Pyrrho affirmed that "nothing is true ; 
nothing is untrue." George Meredith thought life 
like a comedy by Moliere. Life is to us what we 
make it, and so long as we make it strong and pur- 
poseful and delightful it will be so. The forces at 
work in us and about us cause it to conform in the 
main to our ideals of it. This creative, sustaining, 
reconstructive energy we call life is a flux rather 
than a thing, and it will throb in us to the heartbeat 
of the Universal Life according as we ourselves man- 

336 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

age the intake and the output of it, and it will do so 
irrespective of age. 

Physical Changes of Age 

The essential changes incident to old age are 
physiological rather than pathological. But it is a 
period of testing. At that season in one's life what 
one really is mentally and physically is being deter- 
mined. His hereditary tendencies, the modifications 
he has made in them, the elements of strength he has 
introduced, the bad habits and weaknesses he has 
introduced, the general and special resistances he has 
established, all these figure largely now in the daily 
balances being made. Leaving out complications 
set up by mental and physical modifications peculiar 
to individuals, there is no occasion for serious dis- 
tresses in the closing years of life. Uncomplicated 
natural processes are not accompanied by pain. Dis- 
tress in any case arises in large measure from con- 
scious mental attitudes incited by contrasts which 
the mind instinctively draws between what now is 
and what was. Much of the elation of youth pro- 
ceeds from similar contrasts, as one becomes con- 
scious of the improvements going on at so marvelous 
a rate. The reversal of this process very naturally 

337 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 






demands a good degree of mental resistance in order 
to escape the induction of melancholy. The failure 
of so many to resist this tendency is the prime cause 
of physical suffering. In consequence of this, he who 
does not give himself the mental discipline essential 
to calmness and self-command when the physical 
powers are gradually waning, and does not act the 
part of a courageous warrior who knows he is fighting 
his last battle, will find himself in a most wretched 
mental and physical state as he ends his days. 

Senility an Illness 

These reflections prompt me to treat the subject 
of senility as an illness and to point out the details 
of its prevention and cure. That I can do so effec- 
tively for many who shall enter into the spirit of 
self-treatment I do not doubt. There are others, 
however, whose prejudices are so rooted and whose 
mental attitudes are so set that what I suggest will 
have no influence. I shall not attempt to persuade 
such, as fossilization has gone too far to give hope 
of restored ductility. In truth this appeal is prima- 
rily to those who have not yet reached the period of 
true senility, and secondarily to those who have 

338 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

already had glimpses of the truth and are only wait- 
ing for further knowledge to guide them to high 
ground. For those who have ears to hear I have 
good news, and to that vast army of human beings 
moving on towards advanced years I can offer a 
promise of self-protection they cannot afford to 
ignore. 

In a general way let me first urge upon you the 
advantages growing out of moderation in eating and 
drinking. But so much has been written on this 
phase of right living that there is danger of its being 
carried too far. The less we eat the less we shall 
want to eat, until the appetite is liable to become so 
discouraged that the system suffers from wasting, 
without raising a cry for food. Writers on these 
topics appear to forget that the appetite is as open to 
suggestion as any other craving. I accordingly in- 
sist that the supply of nutritive food shall always re- 
main ample. The exercise of great good sense is 
here loudly called for. 

Secondly, I want to insist that the bowels be not 
neglected. It is far better to resort to laxatives and 
enemas, if necessary, than to allow them to become 
constipated. 

339 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

Thirdly, as to exercise, if you are feeble I advise 
you to avoid strenuous or prolonged exercise. I mean 
if you are really feeble. If you are only feeling 
weak, owing to sensitive, complaining nerves, as is 
often the case, you need not be so careful. The mere 
fact that you are sixty or seventy years old is not 
sufficient reason for your being inactive. Think of 
Weston who, when above seventy, walked from ocean 
to ocean at an average speed that few young athletes 
could even approximate. To be sure he had been 
walking all his life; but the ordinary physician will 
tell you that one who has lived a strenuous physical 
life has worn out his energy, and should be more 
careful than others. Their rule, you see, does not 
always apply. Be sure to get a fair amount of exer- 
cise every day, and let it vary but little in its measure. 
Don't let the doctors scare you with the bugbear of 
"hardened arteries." You would better take some 
risk of sudden death, with the chances largely in 
your favor, than to become a helpless old man or 
woman forever in the way. If you begin moderately 
and keep up your exercise daily you can develop your 
muscular strength, and along with it your health, 
provided you practice the precepts I am giving you. 

Now a word about sleep, and only a word, for I 

340 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

must be brief. On some other occasion I may enter 
upon a discussion of the various phases of age at 
greater length. The amount of sleep you get is far 
from being so material as many would lead you to 
believe. Don't worry about it, for you will surely 
get enough. During your sleepless hours do not lie 
and worry, and, what is about as bad, do not wander 
about the room in a restless way. Command your- 
self. You can't go to sleep while walking; so root 
your head into the pillow and think as little as pos- 
sible about anything. You will be sure to sleep 
enough. So stop all worry on that score. 

Heaven help those people who have gone through 
life without obtaining the toning effects of self-dis- 
cipline. If you, my reader, are still in middle life, 
or younger, make haste to do the sensible thing. To 
all such, whether they be in marts of trade, in the 
activities of professional life, or in the dust and heat 
of domestic duties, I say, as I point to the hills along 
whose tops burn the hues of a declining day, "Lift 
up your eyes." Forget the hard side of your toils 
and cares in the thought of the greater liberty and 
the broader opportunities that you may usher in if 
you will. You can do more than Joshua did, you can 

341 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

turn back the sun in its course, to all intents and pur- 
poses, and live a fresh new day. When you feel the 
most like sighing, burst into song and go on with a 
smile. Impress the uprushing wish upon your en- 
vironment, with confidence. Bring out all the strong 
forces of your nature. Inaugurate fresh activities 
and push them with all the courage and strength God 
has given you. Those who do this will shortly find 
themselves already in the cheerful hours of a new 
day 

To those of advanced years who may read these 
pages let me say, with all the emphasis at my com- 
mand, away with moodiness, with repining, with re- 
grets, with self-condemnation. Away with fear, and 
doubt, and helplessness. Be ashamed to be less in 
your own eyes than you ever were. Dont talk about 
the helplessness of age, and the vanity of life. If 
you can see failures and unhappy experiences as you 
look back, — if life has been one long struggle, count 
it all helpful. Remember that you have been in 
training for better things, and rejoice. Refuse to be 
other than a comfort and an inspiration to those 
about you, so that age may become adorned with all 
the beauties which rightly belong to it. Make cheer- 
ful your nights of trial with song. Hold no regret 

342 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

of the years that come and go; they mark out only a 
little space among the aeons which are really yours. 
Get a cosmic view of life, and all the things over 
which you have worried and fretted so much will sink 
into nothingness, being lost among the greater things 
crowding into the field of attention. 

Remember one is about as old as he allows himself 
to feel. I have seen some men old at forty or forty- 
five, and I have seen others still young at seventy- 
five or eighty. And why should it not be so ? It is 
the spirit that quickeneth. 

A man is truly old when he ceases to be useful. 
When he begins to think he is too old to act a part 
of value, he is getting near the ragged edge; and if 
he go beyond that point and account himself as really 
ready to drop, it is time for him either to reform or 
absolutely to let go. 

It is true that one has a good deal to contend with 
in the form of evil suggestion as he advances in years, 
not the smallest of which proceeds from those who 
love him. Suggestions of a parent's uselessness are 
often thoughtlessly dropped by children. The father 
ought to be encouraged to fill his place in the busi- 
ness world as long as it is possible for him to get to 

343 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

his business place, and even afterwards; and the 
mother ought to be left in charge of domestic affairs 
as long as she is willing to be. It is no mark of 'kind- 
ness to humor the inclinations of parents to let go. 
Let those who love them brace them up with strong 
words of assurance. Because parents now and then 
get a cold or have an attack of indigestion children 
have no business to jump to the conclusion that they 
are suffering thus from the effects of age. Infants 
and adolescents are far more subject to such attacks 
than those who have passed the limits of three-score. 

One who has gone beyond middle life seems much 
older to the young than he really is; but when the 
fleeting years have brought those once-young people 
to that same age, they dye their hair and resort to 
cosmetics, vociferating their youthful feelings and 
declining to accept suggestions of senility. When 
you hear a man of age persistently proclaim that he 
is sick and tired of life's opportunities and achieve- 
ments and that he longs for rest, be sure that it is 
really time for him to change his ways or move out. 

Let those who love their parents cease to remind 
them by word and act of their advancing years. If 
their lives are worth preserving they will resent the 

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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

very intimation of helplessness. Let the old pass 
out amidst the activities and joys of life. Do not 
be sorry for them even though the strong hand of 
necessity hold them as toilers to the last. Life is 
earnest ; life is real ; and we should hold a keen in- 
terest in its affairs to the last. 

Let the old who have been content merely to exist 
get reasonably active again. He who will not work 
has no right to eat. There is always something use- 
ful to be done; then let all do it, no matter what 
their age. Men mistake in thinking that, by former 
activities, they have earned a right to sit by in idle- 
ness and let the remaining years run to waste. 

To all who breathe God's pure air and bask in his 
delightful sunshine , I say, still do your part of what 
is to be done, and enjoy your part of what is to be 
enjoyed; for this is the road to health and happiness. 

Autosuggestions 

From among the following suggestions those who 
need them will be able to select those that fit their 
particular cases. They should be used like all auto- 
suggestions, day after day, for a long period of time. 
It is iteration and reiteration that brings results. 

345 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

I fear nothing; I dread nothing. 

The future does not look menacing. 

Death has lost its terrors. I have lived many 
years exposed to it, and why should I have any fear 
of it now ? It is only when one has put the fea^ of 
death behind him that he is a free man. 

In truth I look upon death as a friend, especially 
when it comes in the ripeness of age. 

Besides, no matter what my age, since I am still 
in a fair degree of physical health and strength, my 
end may be long delayed. 

In spirit I am as young as ever, and there is no 
reason why I should not enter with keen relish into 
the joys of living. I shall do so today and every day. 

I despise a coward, and so does everyone, and I 
shall not be one. What I have to meet I shall meet 
with courage. 

I am heartily ashamed of the moods which have 
been allowed to paralyze my efforts. There are many 
helpful things for me to do, and I shall do them 
with right good cheer. 

If my moods remain obstinate I shall go on in 
346 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

the strength of a purposeful and resolute will. If 
I must fall I shall fall in the lines. Clear grit shall 
mark my conduct if my sustaining emotions prove 
recreant. 

I want to live as long as I can serve, and no longer. 
If I am an aid or comfort to anybody, so that I still 
have a place in life, I can live on with courage. 

I am not yet old; there are many who have lived 
ten, twenty, thirty, or even forty years longer. 

I have no morbid dread of age, for I expect to 
be well and happy. Age does not need to bring suf- 
fering. 

In truth I shall take pleasure in showing myself 
and others how one can grow old gracefully. 

I shall not be irritable or petulant, but shall be 
patient and enduring. 

My mind is clear and strong, and shall so remain. 
My heart is light; I sing as I go. 

My sleep shall be good; my digestion fine; my 
excretions ample. 

My endurance shall be equal to every demand; 
my sexual function shall continue normal ; my spirit 
cheerful. 

347 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

I am much alone, and I sometimes feel deserted; 
but I am not. As long as I am friendly I shall have 
friends. 

I shall no longer look for trouble. Sufficient unto 
the day is the evil thereof. 

On the contrary, I shall look for good things. 

I have been thinking too much about the end of 
life. Now I shall think about more abundant and 
long continued life. 

I'd rather die than merely live, and I shall at once 
get busy and keep busy about useful things. I have 
my eye on a mark and I shall keep it there. 

I've been thinking too much about myself, and 
have doubtless been too unmindful of others. I sup- 
pose I've been most unlovely at times. So now I 
shall sweeten up and become a benediction wherever 
I am. 

I shall no longer think of myself as infirm, and 
wasting, and "only waiting." Eternal autumn shall 
henceforth be mine, with all the hues that bespeak 
strong life and feeling. I shall keep in mind the 
colors characteristic of autumn, with its brilliant 

348 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

days, calm, cool atmospheres, its nuances of shadow, 
hue and tone. There are amber, saffron, gold, sul- 
phur, yellow ochre, orange, red, copper, aquamarine 
and amaranth. As it is in nature, so shall it be in 
my life. 

I shall be interested in people and things. With- 
out being childish and frivolous I shall be bright and 
cheerful. I shall radiate an influence so inspiring, 
so cheerful, so stimulating that those with whom I 
am associated shall seek my company. 

I shall be master of mind and body to the last. 

Thoughts of death shall be banished. 

Life shall flood my being. 

Energy and Enthusiasm shall go with me as con- 
stant companions. 

When the end shall come, as it must come at last 
to all, I shall respond with a smile, a Here am I; 
and all is well." 

I mean to be no fossil; but to the last I shall be 
active, energetic, uncomplaining, kind, cheerful and 
loving ; a man among men, — a woman among women. 

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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

The fear of being without means to provide the 
necessaries and the ordinary comforts of life some- 
times obsesses me ; bnt I repel it and resolutely trust 
the Spirit of Life so to direct my affairs that I shall 
lack no good thing. 

I have an unwavering faith in guidance by a Power 
that is infinite, an Intelligence that is absolute, and 
a Love that is far reaching and never failing. Good- 
ness and mercy, peace and prosperity, health and 
happiness shall ever be mine. 






350 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 



Letter XXXVIII 



ORGANIC LESIONS 

When a disorder has gone on to the development 
of a change of a threatening nature it would be 
manifestly unwise for the sufferer to pursue its treat- 
ment without the personal attention of one competent 
to judge from the symptoms of the seriousness of 
the situation and the complications liable to ensue 
when following its natural course. The single ex- 
ception to such a rule of conduct is furnished by 
cases wherein competent physicians have declared 
the situation unamenable to treatment and have 
marked out a protracted course for the disorder, 
should it proceed without complications. Modern 
orthodox medicine, though at its best unable to do 
very much in the way of cure, has attained great 
proficiency in diagnosis, and is able to predict with 
some degree of certainty the natural course of many 
of the chronic disorders when uninfluenced by treat- 
ment. The opinions expressed by it are deeply tinc- 
tured in most instances by pessimism, being based 
upon the negative results ordinarily obtained under 

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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

regular methods, and should not be allowed to depress 
and dishearten the patient to whom they are given. 
In this particular one is safer to fortify himself 
against possible harm from the very source to which 
he goes for advice. 

Leavitt-Science in Organic Disease 

Elemoving then from consideration bad cases of 
organic disease, and ruling out all the acute diseases 
which set in with chill and fever, severe pain, sudden 
prostration, convulsive or paralytic indications, or 
unconsciousness, the advantages to be derived from a 
faithful application of the kind of psychotherapy set 
forth in these letters far outweigh the possibilities 
of harm likely to arise from limiting the treatment 
to self-help. But the self-reliance must be hearty 
and positive in order to be effectual. 

This leaves a vast field of disease manifestation 
clearly within the scope and design of the form of 
psychotherapy elsewhere given in detail. I do not 
need to designate the ailments by name, for diagnosis 
is not of much value as a preliminary to psychic 
treatment; indeed, it is often a positive harm owing 
to the unfavorable prognoses which are commonly 

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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

attached to symptoms of certain kinds. Faith, cour- 
age? good-cheer and resolution are fundamental fac- 
tors in treatment of the sort I recommend, and these 
mental states must not be unnecessarily subjected to 
negation. The more ginger, snap and gumption you' 
can put into the effort the more likely you are to win. 

Comparatively few symptoms are seriously menac- 
ing in their incipiency, and that is the very time at 
which to begin in earnest to get command of the 
situation by psychic means. An ounce of prevention 
is always worth a pound of cure. One ought to be 
eternally vigilant, but never anxious; the ideal atti- 
tude is that of the inspector of machinery who looks 
daily to every part, without solicitude, but yet with 
sufficient interest and thoroughness to discover what- 
ever may be imperfect. The human organism, 
with all its delicate parts and actions, ought to be 
inspected every day with a critical eye but with a 
mind well assured of its ability to correct whatever 
flaws may be found. Attention to one's self given 
in that spirit will never degenerate into the morbid 
self-scrutiny and censorship which characterize the 
psychoneurasthenic state. Attention bestowed on 
yourself or others in the spirit of confidence is con- 
structive in its effects; but that given in a spirit of 

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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

distrust and fear is destructive. The mental attitude 
has a positive control of the effect. 

Accordingly I advise you to take yourself in hand 
at the earliest possible moment, and give yourself the 
kind of help which I have tried to make plain to you, 
so as to turn aside menacing symptoms and save your- 
self from getting under the power of disorders which 
might otherwise follow. That we are able thus to 
guard ourselves from many serious attacks there can 
be no reasonable doubt. 

If disorder has chanced to slip in unawares, or if 
this letter finds you already in the toils of disease, 
whatever is done should be undertaken with confi- 
dence ; and, no matter whether the physical situation 
is such as will admit of self -treatment alone, or has 
to be undertaken in connection with the efforts of a 
physician employing the ordinary methods, large 
measures of benefit can be secured. While the best 
results are not to be obtained from simultaneous use 
of two distinct forms of treatment, one of them 
administered by an unbeliever with his material 
remedies and the other by yourself with psycho- 
therapy, I want you to know that still much aid can 
be afforded. I therefore advise you to exercise the 

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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

best sense at command, and to do so with assurance 
of getting a due proportion of benefit out of whatever 
is undertaken. We all have to creep before we can 
walk, and we have to walk before we can run. 



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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 



Letter XXXIX 



ACUTE DISEASES 

That the psychic principles of cure apply with 
equal efficiency to the acute diseases, the very nature 
of psychotherapy makes evident. That this method 
of treatment has not yet made a startling record in 
this department of practice is due mainly to two con- 
siderations, (1) the pathetic confidence of the public 
in the efficiency of drug medication, notwithstanding 
its flat failures, and (2) the moral and possibly legal 
responsibility, in the present state of opinion, re- 
quired to be assumed by both the physician who 
employs it and those who allow its use. In case the 
termination chance to be unfavorable there is still 
likelihood of public, and possibly legal, condemna- 
tion. In the same connection it must be remembered 
that there are but few licensed physicians who have 
yet had the courage to give the practice its proper 
place, and the public know scarcely anything of its 
virtues. Thus far "healers," with little or no educa- 
tion in the fundamentals of medicine, such as anat- 
omy, physiology, pathology and chemistry, have been 

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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

almost the only practitioners in the field. But the 
day is not distant when psychotherapy in the treat- 
ment of acute diseases will be the vogue. 

Inefficiency of the Old Methods 

The following quotation, taken from the preface 
of a leading medical text-book recently published, 
reflects the feeling of therapeutic helplessness per- 
vading the dominant school of practice, and should 
prove as instructive as it is frank and pathetic. 

"He [the physician] may in a measure influence 
some diseases by his directions for the general care 
of the patient, but, as a rule, the patient dies or re- 
covers irrespective of his therapeutic efforts, in so far 
at least as these efforts are based upon ancient em- 
piricism. Typhoid fever patients still pursue the 
same course, which was so well described by the 
physicians of the medieval ages; our pneumonia 
death rate is still what it was when the earliest 
records on the subject were kept, and is virtually 
the same for the millionaire in his marble palace, 
surrounded by doctors and nurses, as for the tramp 
who is cared for by the roadside by his brothei- 
tramps. The Virulence' of an epidemic of scarlatina 

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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

or measles may vary, but our death rate, in the long 
run, is virtually the same. When actual progress 
has been made in the treatment of disease, such prog- 
ress has been due, not to our therapeutic interference 
by means of drugs, but to a recognition, be it ever so 
slight, of those factors by which nature herself, un- 
aided and at the same time unhampered by empirical 
drug treatment, seeks to accomplish that end. For, 
after all, the very thing which physicians have sought 
to accomplish in all the countries that have passed, 
viz., the cure of disease, that very thing nature has 
accomplished by herself before our very eyes, count- 
less millions of times. * * * The fact that nature 
does not cure all cases would of course be interpreted 
as an indication that the means at nature's com- 
mand are, after all, not perfect. This is naturally 
a debatable point. So much, however, seems certain 
that nature's ways, so far as we have become familiar 
with them, are the only specific ways, along which 
progress seems possible, and that drug treatment, if 
it ever shall become of value, must start from a dif- 
ferent basis!" 

What is thus so frankly confessed is an opinion 
to which individual physicians give utterance in 
private conversation and occasionally in medical 

358 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

meetings. Were it untrue what possible excuse 
would there be for the introduction of drugless 
methods, some of which, while having no more than 
a grain of virtue in them, obtain a degree of efficiency 
and favor as a prot3st against the inefficiency of old 
methods ? 

Psychic Treatment of Acute Troubles 

But can psychothex'apy really offer anything bet- 
ter? It is not fair to take away the people's faith 
in the methods now in vogue without substituting 
something more effective in their place. There is a 
popular supposition that, while psychotherapy has 
certain advantages over other methods in the treat- 
ment of diseases following a protracted course, it is 
too slow-acting to be trusted in the treatment of those 
diseases that run a rapid course and rise to their 
dangerous climaxes with a bound. I admit there is 
force in the opinion, especially when viewed from 
the side of psychotherapy of a kind which does not 
permit the use of adjuvants so simple in character 
that they cannot do the patient harm should they 
fail to do him good. The psychotherapist has as good 
a right to employ simple aids, and even surgery in 
suitable cases as has the practitioner of any other 

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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

method. The concurrent use of any means whatever 
by one whose main reliance is upon the mental im- 
pressions produced and the new states of conscious- 
ness set up, is perfectly legitimate; and this is one 
of the advantages that the educated physician has 
over the layman. It must indeed he admitted by all 
acquainted with the facts that there is some virtue in 
carefully chosen drugs; and when the purpose is to 
make the mental therapy fill the chiefest place in 
cure, as it ought to, the few drugs administered are 
far more likely to be chosen with care and continued 
no longer than the circumstances demand. The 
stability of the new practice requires great good sense 
in its practitioners, and they must not at any time 
part company with reason. 

And now as to the advisability of relying on 
LEAVITT-SCIENCE in the self-management of 
acute cases. I realize that there are so many expedi- 
ents which the layman cannot intelligently handle, 
and so many significant features he could not recog- 
nize, that, in all but simple and evidently unmenac- 
ing conditions, he would act wisely in calling in a 
physician. If in your community there be one who 
understands the principles of the new practice, he 
should be preferred, other qualifications being equal. 

360 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

At the same time there is a wide field for self- 
help in dealing with acute symptoms. If indications 
of disorder are taken at their incipiency they can 
usually he controlled, whereas if they are left un- 
noticed or are wholly ignored, they may prove to be 
the forerunners of mischief. This, I assume, is a 
wide enough field for the layman to occupy in the 
treatment of acute troubles either in himself or 
others. 

But provided a physician be called, still a wise use 
of helps can do much towards bringing about a speedy 
and sure cure. The sick, by employing the various 
means mentioned in these letters, and especially auto- 
suggestion, are often able to insure a happy termina- 
tion of what would otherwise have been a serious, 
if not a fatal, outcome. Cooperation is far better 
than indifference. The mental aid of a few believing 
friends at such a time is also most valuable. 

Autosuggestions 

Make use of such suggestions as those which follow. 

I affirm my belief in the power of my mind over 
my body. 

I do not doubt that I have been remiss in my ex- 

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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

pressions of faith — that my affirmations and actions 
have not been consonant. I have not been as vigilant 
and firm as I might have been. I have left the door 
ajar and disorder has stolen in. 

Indeed, it may be that I have been living in almost 
total neglect of the higher and stronger forces of my 
being and abundant room has been left for the en- 
trance of faction, schism and general disorder. 

But now all this neglect shall cease. I am driv- 
ing out the intruders; I am repairing my broken- 
down defenses; I am restoring order and establish- 
ing discipline. 

The ailments from which I suffer shall be short- 
lived. I do not acknowledge their authority; I do 
not intend to show them any leniency. They must 
away. 

I am suffering some distress, but it shall not last. 
My organic forces are in vigorous action ; my mental 
and physical energies are doing good service. The 
heat of the strife may give me some unusual tem- 
perature for the time being and after that I shall 
have the calm of re-established rule. 

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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

I am not anxious or worried. The suffering is 
grievous for the moment, and yet I have a feeling 
of exaltation in anticipation of victory. At times 
my mind is dull, and a lethargy is upon me, but these 
shall not last and they do not. For the time being 
I rest and then I pull myself together. I restore 
my lines; I fight; I win! 

The helps that are being used I re-enforce by the 
energy of my will. There is unity of action all 
around. Every needed aid shall be given. I trust 
the Intelligence, the Power, the Love manifesting in 
in and through me for guidance and support. There 
shall be no failure, no error. 

All is well! 



363 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY. 



Letter XL 



DISORDERS OF THE CIRCULATORY 
SYSTEM 

The circulatory systems are not always well 
treated. By the designation circulatory "systems" I 
mean the blood system and the lymphatic system, the 
one being about as important as the other, and both 
being influenced in large degree by similar causes. 
The heart, being the great motor organ of the blood 
system, features prominently in our consideration of 
the conditions tending to influence the circulatory ac- 
tivities. Second in order of importance are the arte- 
ries, and thirdly the veins. The vaso-motor nervous 
system has control of the muscular action of the ar- 
teries by which the caliber of these vessels is increased 
and diminished, and the great sympathetic and cere- 
brospinal systems have the general, as well as spe- 
cific, movements of the blood, according to varying 
needs, under their control. The flow of blood to- 
wards the heart through the veins and of the lymph 
through the lymphatic circulation are influenced by 
muscular action. The heart beats rapidly or slowly, 

364 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

with great energy or small, according to needs, and 
the needs are determined by the degrees of muscular, 
mental or other organic activity 

With such a situation before the mind it is easily 
seen that defective or excited nervous action, ineffi- 
cient mental control, too little and too much muscu- 
lar exercise, are capable of disturbing the healthful 
balance of the circulatory systems. To put excessive 
demands upon its resources is to overburden the en- 
ergies of the heart and to overstrain nerve action, 
while to lay insufficient demands upon its resources 
is gradually to sap the mental and physical energies. 

Causes 

Among the disturbing customs and habits giving 
rise to disordered circulation are the immoderate use 
of nerve stimulants — like those in common use — 
overeating, excessive muscular exercise and also neg- 
lect of it, prolonged and insufficient mental activity, 
and the recurrence of violent emotions. Temperance 
in all things, or at the most only occasional outbursts 
of excesses, are the prudent rules of life action. 

Among my readers are many who have what they 
call "poor circulation," citing cold hands and feet 

365 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

as evidence of their unenviable state. These are 
chiefly people who are suffering the effects of nervous 
disorder. Their cold extremities are often due to the 
incoordinate action of the vaso-motor nerves, the 
blood supply to those parts being diminished, but 
not because of an essential failure of the general cir- 
culation. There is inefficient control of nerve action 
at the large centers, and the psychic energies in gen- 
eral are not giving proper service. The defect is es- 
sential in nature and is central, the disturbed condi- 
tion being only symptomatic. This is only one ex- 
pression among many, all pointing to a state of non- 
self-control, and the patient needs attention rather 
than the cold extremities. True circulatory failure 
of a chronic type is commonly dependent either on 
heart inefficiency or a loss of elasticity of the arteries. 
In such cases we have organic lesions to deal with. 
But the condition is not so grave as the patient often 
infers. Besides, symptoms are often erroneously in- 
terpreted by both patients and physicians as conclu- 
sive evidences of such states. Do not fall into de- 
spair because you have a diagnosis of serious heart 
lesion or of hardened arteries, for many errors are 
made. And then, even if the heart lesion exists or 
the arteries are more or less hard, the compensative 

366 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

action of the intelligent forces of the organism are 
such that serious danger can be averted and the com- 
plexities of the case reduced to a minimum, provided 
you preserve your confidence and courage. Because 
you suffer this, that or the other symptom you are 
not hastily to infer that it springs from the organic 
lesion of which you have some knowledge, for we 
know that distresses and disabilities of all sorts owe 
their origin to functional disorder which has no di- 
rect relation to lesions of that nature and prove 
ephemeral if not taken too seriously. Among the 
symptoms thus wrongly interpreted are (1) inability 
to lie on the left side with comfort; (2) sudden at- 
tacks of vertigo, especially on making sudden move- 
ments, on lying down or on turning in bed; (3) pal- 
pitations of the heart, intermissions and irregularity 
of rhythm of the pulsations, and (4) weak, faint 
feelings. The first of these is often a notion, easily 
broken by resolute assumption of the position and 
its fearless maintenance. The second most fre- 
quently proceeds as a reflex from the digestive sys- 
tem. Pressure of firm feces or gases on certain areas 
of the large bowel is able to produce this in sensitive 
subjects. Gases in the stomach will also occasion it. 
At other times it comes from a minor autoinfection. 

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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

The third are occasioned chiefly by upward pressure 
of gases in the stomach or the transverse colon in 
those whose nerves are peculiarly responsive. They 
rarely indicate much evil. The fourth is usually due 
to disturbed nerve tone and a prevailing oversensi- 
tiveness. 

Self-Control 

Small expedients are usually available for their 
control. Fear will aggravate and encourage their 
continuance and it must be put aside. Alternate ex- 
pansion of the chest and abdomen, so as to exercise 
the diaphragm, kept up for a minute or two at a 
time, will aid to start the gas. A liberal enema of 
tepid water is a good expedient. But by training the 
body to obedience, the reader will find that the func- 
tions can be kept in peaceful activity so that symp- 
toms like those first mentioned will rarely arise. Con- 
fidence in your authority over function is the ideal 
mental attitude to insure relief. 

The will to be well can avail much for you in ac- 
quiring that command over your forces so much 
needed. Insist on being in authority. But this must 
be done in that spirit of calm confidence that sig- 

363 






MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

nifi.es an entire absence of fear. Bring to your aid 
the kind of psychoanalysis we have studied. Pick 
the symptoms to pieces and thus the better show your 
consciousness the futility of fear. The process itself 
has a wholesome effect upon the morale of the symp- 
toms. But your best help will come from the use 
of suitable self-suggestion. The following formulas 
are adapted to the different conditions found in the 
disorders. 

Autosuggestions 

Having sought seclusion, read slowly and thought- 
fully the suggestions. They may not all fit your par- 
ticular case, but from among them you will be able 
to select certain ones for daily use. 

These tissues of mine derive their nutrition from 
the blood that is carried outwards from the heart, 
where it has lost its deleterious elements and taken 
on oxygen, and in thought I see it going to every part 
in health-giving streams. 

I fancy I can feel the blood coursing everywhere, 
with an even, steady flow. 

There is no undue pressure at any point, but each 
part is receiving its due share and no more. 

369 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

The headaches, the pains and the other disagree- 
able sensations that some people suffer as a result of 
uneven supply of the life-giving fluid shall not be 
mine. 

My hands and feet are being warmed by the gentle 
heat it carries. 

My heart, as a pumping organ, is doing its work 
well, and the blood vessels into which the blood is 
forced by its contractions are sufficiently elastic to 
receive the output with comfort and pass it on in a 
steady stream. 

There is good action in all the circulatory mech- 
anism. The valves close with precision and accuracy, 
so that there is no lost energy, and the heart rhythm 
is sustained. At one time there were some defects 
which are now passing. 

My arteries may not be quite so elastic as they 
were when I was a child, but they are enough so to 
do their work well. 

I have no fear of harm coming suddenly Or 
stealthily upon me. My trust in the resources of my 
organism is explicit and implicit. 

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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

Whatever may have been wrong in my mind and 
body is being set right. I am confidently looking 
for full health and strength. 

Thoughts' of age, inefficiency and deteriorating fac- 
ulties find no place with me. My strength is being 
renewed, my energies are unfailing, my natural force 
is unremitting — I am on the gain. 

I am resolved to be master of my forces. I refuse 
to be servant. 

My body shall be a faithful exponent of my mind 
and character. My ideals are admirable, and as the 
result of holding them faithfully and clearly, I ex- 
pect to realize them in my life. 

If you are uncertain as to the methods of using 
these suggestions, or are unconvinced of their effi- 
ciency, read again the letters on Autosuggestion in 
preceding pages. 



371 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 



Letter XLI 



WOMEN'S DISEASES 

Medicine continues to reap its richest harvest from 
women suffering from ailments peculiar to their sex. 
That many of the disorders are due to a misinter- 
pretation of emotions and sensations, and occasionally 
even to mere fancy, we know. And then, too, physi- 
cians themselves are sometimes responsible for the 
aches, the pains, the sensations of weight and pressure 
in the pelvis, as well as serious lesions, superinduced 
by wrong diagnoses and the disordering effects of the 
fears thereby engendered. To women, the organs 
embraced within that bony pelvis are a great mys- 
tery, and since the strongest emotions and those most 
concerned in the making of their weal or woe bear 
some direct or indirect, recognized or unrecognized 
relation to those organs, it is not any wonder that 
they should become the seat of many disturbing sen- 
sory experiences. And so they are. A woman can 
have a pain in the head of a most agonizing char- 
acter, lasting for indefinite periods, without arousing 
any suspicion of a brain lesion in the mind of either 

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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

herself or her physician, but a pain somewhere in 
the vicinity of the ovary is very apt to be inter- 
preted by both as meaning some lesion of the organ, 
and should it be persistent, as demanding surgical 
intervention for its relief. If not the ovary, then 
it is declared to be the uterus that is involved, and 
if, perchance, in either instance the slightest anom- 
aly is found it is at once pounced upon as the un- 
doubted offender and either prolonged treatment sug- 
gested or some sort of surgical work. 

And then, when once the mind of the woman is 
turned with suspicion to this part of the body, and 
some of the common pains or other distresses be- 
come inseparably associated with the pathology said 
by the physician to exist, permanent relief by any 
of the methods proposed is rarely to be had. In a 
large percentage of such cases the abnormal sensa- 
tions resulting from surgery serve to perpetuate bad 
feelings, even when the primary disturbances have 
been removed through action of the strong suggestion 
furnished by the operation. So that in many of these 
cases the end is worse than the beginning, owing to 
the unskillful and sometimes stupid way in which 
such troubles are handled. 

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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

I do not voice the opinion of a novitiate when 
I say that there is no class of disorders so juggled 
as those peculiar to women. The average doctor 
knows but little of a rational pathology of pelvic 
disorders, though he assumes to be well informed. In 
truth, pelvic etiology and pathology are archaic any- 
how. They still teach, among other absurdities, that 
a movable organ like the uterus, weighing in a nor- 
mal state not to exceed two ounces, is able to give rise 
to the most serious symptoms when tilted backwards 
to an unusual angle, or when lying a little lower in 
the pelvis than it is in the average case. And so doc- 
tors recommend all sorts of formidable devices and 
operations for correction of the malposition, which 
— for such is the irony of medicine — often fail to 
correct. So-called "female weaknesses," which have 
made invalids of hundreds of thousands of women, 
are most frequently feelings or sensations proceeding 
from a state of general weakness, or special sensa- 
tions arising from or perpetuated by fears which 
have in some way been awakened in the sensitive sub- 
ject. There are thousands of women — doubtless tens 
of thousands of them — in America today who are 
utilizing but a fraction of their efficiency and are 
enjoying but a modicum of what is rightfully theirs, 

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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

who could easily be made well and happy and sur- 
prisingly efficient by a few weeks of psychic treatment 
of the right sort. They are held by their false no- 
tions in a slavery as absolute and as demoralizing to 
themselves and those about them as the poor "white 
slave" upon which we are now bestowing so much 
deserved and undeserved pity. It is time that women 
were delivered from this bondage to fear and mis- 
trust which professional chicanery and ignorance 
have laid upon them. 

The first thing to be done is to obtain the opinion 
of a capable, an unbiased, and an honest physician. 
The second is to accept his assurance of freedom from 
any serious pelvic disease, despite the recurrent dis- 
tresses experienced. The third is to go about self- 
emancipation through use of the means furnished by 
these letters and pursue it to a finish. These ignor- 
ant sufferers should throw physic to the dogs; lay 
aside their devices and expedients; cultivate strong, 
happy, healthy thinking and confident acting. There 
is no occasion for invalidism from any pelvic dis- 
ease except cancer (or other malignant development), 
suppurative inflammation in subacute stage or some 
such unquestioned and easily demonstrated lesion. 

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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

Pain in the pelvis, when chronic, if disconnected with 
a true lesion, is positively amenable to cure by psy- 
chotherapy and should not be allowed to destroy 
a woman s happiness and usefulness. 

Most of such cases are dependent on psychoneurotic 
disturbance and will require treatment addressed to 
the general condition as well as the special. You 
will accordingly read the letters on nervousness in its 
various phases and use the self-helps therein offered 
along with the special suggestions which follow. 

Autosuggestions 

I believe that in a large and important way mind 
rules the body. 

My fears have been too much in evidence. I have 
distrusted my physical integrity without sufficient 
cause, and now I resolutely put doubt aside. 

I believe that physical conditions are in great meas- 
ure amenable to conscious thought and will, so that, 
even though there be some minor physical ailment, it 
will yield to the power of right thought and demand. 

Believing that it is not unreasonable or improbable 
that, in response to my volition, my subconsciousness 

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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

is already at work restoring physical and mental 
health, I am resolved to exert my will to that end as 
fast and as far as I know how to do so. 

To this end I am resolved to expel all fear from 
my mind, to break the pernicious images of disease 
and weakness hitherto held, to look to the future with 
hope, and to base my actions on hope rather than 
fear. 

I shall no longer fear to exert myself to any rea- 
sonable degree, to act like a well woman, to cast off 
all sense of morbidity and live a strong, active, nor- 
mal life, no matter whether the old sensations con- 
tinue or not. 

I do believe. My faith rises and says, "I shall 
prevail." 

I call upon my subconsciousness to rectify all 
wrong or imperfect action, to restore harmony, to 
expel all intruders, and to make me perfectly sound 
in both mind and body, and I believe it will do so. 

To this mental attitude I shall resolutely hold until 
these things are accomplished. 



377 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 



Letter XLII 



ACCIDENTS 

As an exciting cause of physical disturbance, acci- 
dent fills a prominent place. Concussion and compres- 
sion of the brain and spinal cord; fracture of verte- 
brae, of arms, of legs, of pelvis, of ribs and of shoul- 
der; sprains, strains, contusions and displacements 
of various parts; lacerations, cuts and punctures of 
important structures, all these and many other forms 
of accident are to be reckoned with. 

While injuries of various kinds leave their marks 
in tissue, temporarily disorder functions, give rise 
to much suffering and sometimes permanently disable 
those who suffer them, the mental and nervous effects 
of a lasting kind are far more numerous. There are 
certain organizations that seem to be standing in wait 
for some such excuse to be completely thrown out of 
balance. The country is full of invalids and semi- 
invalids who attribute their downfall to causes of 
this kind. An accident operates on a sensitive organ- 
ism, especially one that discloses pessimistic traits, 

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MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

as a powerful suggestion. Fears are set going and 
thereafter every discomfort is attributed to the one 
cause, and the cumulative action engendered becomes 
disabling and even destructive. 

Now I venture to affirm that not 10 per cent of all 
the symptoms commonly interpreted as remote effects 
of accident are really such, save in a psychic sense. 
Nervous people have a logic of their own by which 
they arrive at conclusions prejudicial to their whole 
after lives. Characteristically stubborn, capricious 
and perverse, it is an Herculean task to convince 
them of the erroneous inferences they have drawn 
from accidental and incidental phenomena. 

There are natures that pride themselves on remark- 
able experiences. Primary facts and sequential 
sensations are enlarged upon, not with an intention 
to deceive, but in response to a penchant which makes 
them honest malingerers. To many such I hope this 
message will come as an awakener which shall put 
them on the way to normal states. 

To you, my reader, who have supposed yourself a 
victim of the enduring effects of accident, I want to 
address a few words of advice. In reading the pre- 
ceding observations you have been piqued, and yet 

379 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

you have read on out of curiosity. You may not be- 
long to the 90 per cent who are misinterpreting the 
action of efficient causes, but the chances are that 
you do. Now don't be vexed at my frankness. I 
have no other wish than to do you good. I want you 
to get well. If you are eager to recover your health 
and agility, listen attentively to what I say. That 
nervous system of yours is liable to play you most 
surprising tricks, and it probably has done so in this 
instance. The physicians whom you have consulted 
may have made some concessions to your opinions, 
but I do not doubt that some of them have expressed 
serious doubt of the reality of the apparent situa- 
tion. Nervous disorders always present some irra- 
tional features which a discerning physician at once 
detects. 

Let me make you a proposition, if you really want 
to get well. It is this : Lay aside your own notions 
for the time and enter upon an earnest adoption of 
the treatment by autosuggestion which follows. But 
you must do so in the right spirit if you hope for good 
results. If you say to yourself, "Now I'll prove to 
him and to my friends that I am right and they are 
wrong," why, of course, you will get what you seek. 

380 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

But be earnest and honest. Enter with enthusiasm 
into the effort. Hope, sincerely hope, that you have 
been in error and affirm your belief in the possibility 
of an immediate dissipation of the evil complex and 
a sure restoration to health. The thing to get rid 
of is the conviction that there has been set up, as a 
result of the accident, structural changes that a re- 
vival of confidence and a development of good self- 
control will not cure. 

Throw into the effort all the strength of your na- 
ture and the chances will be very largely in your 
favor. You will see disability and discomfort giving 
way before your psychotherapy. 

Autosuggestions 

Use faithfully and persistently the following sug- 
gestions. See how much spirit you can put into 
them. After you have done so for a month, write 
me. I may be able to give you a push over the 
line, if you still need one. 

Beneath surface discouragements I have felt all 
the time that I should find relief, and now I believe 
the expected moment is at hand. 

381 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

My spirit is aroused within me. 

My faith in a favorable outcome has grown large. 

My will is stirred. I am determined to succeed. 

This body has been masquerading in a way cal- 
culated to deceive me. I do not doubt that I have 
misconstrued many of my sensations. 

Emotion has played a most specious and subtle 
part. 

But now I intend to take full possession of myself 
and be master. I have been acting the part of a 
servant long enough. Feeling shall no longer domi- 
nate my action. 

I have entered upon this treatment with deliberate 
intention to carry it through to a successful issue. I 
am resolved to triumph. 

I can now see that troubles of various kinds have 
been invited by my negative mental state and my 
passive attitudes. Henceforth I shall be positive, 
positive, positive. I shall command the situation. 

What is more, even though a certain measure of 
structural change has been induced by my accident, 

382 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

I shall overcome it all and be fully delivered from 
my disability and distress. It shall not remain. 

My faith in the efficiency of subconscious action 
thus set up is unwavering. I do believe. 

So now I begin to use my forces more energetically. 
I shall be prudent. My system is probably soft from 
its moderate exercise and I shall proceed with pru- 
dence. But should I now and then overdo, the un- 
pleasant effects will not be lasting. I expect some 
reactions, but they will be followed by a more ener- 
getic movement. ~No long interruptions of definite 
progress shall there be. 

And, finally, for the sake of the motive thus to 
be gained, I again promise myself to be faithful and 
persistent in my endeavors, giving time daily to the 
specific work involved in the undertaking. 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 



Success 

With mental and physical adjustment which I 
trust you have procured through the help offered in 
the preceding pages, there is no good reason why, 
with a fair understanding, you should not gain a far 
greater degree of financial success. 

That you may know the way, I herewith address 
to you, my reader, a letter on this all-important 
subject. 

The Laws Few, and Simple 

The laws of success are few and simple. They are 
made so clear in the following pages that he who 
runneth may read. 

These laws are not conditioned by the ethical in- 
tent of the individual any more than are the laws 
of electricity, of heat expansion and gravity — a fact 
worth remembering since there are those who would 
have it otherwise. Ethical standards are of social 
origin, and they can modify the laws of the mind 

384 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

only by destroying self-reliance and the spirit of con- 
fidence which is the strongest guaranty of success. 
In other words, the laws of success are available to 
all. 

It is true that success is far more commendable 
which has for its ultimate object the good of others 
besides self, but a selfish man is far better than none 
at all, and in all our incentives there is, anyhow, a 
large measure of self-gratification. 

The principles of success along any line of human 
endeavor are identical, whether applied to the ac- 
quirement of wealth, the establishment of health or 
the liberation or salvation of a nation. 

The Environment 

Here, to my mind, is a solution of the action by 
which we draw to us the helps and comforts we desire 
and are fitted to receive. 

Let us suppose that we have a darling object in 
view, something toward which we have been moved, 
as we believe, not by considerations of mere satis- 
faction, but by subconscious action representing mo- 
tives hidden in the depths of our true nature. It 

385 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

may be an ambition to excel in music, in sculpture, in 
literature, in trade, in law, or it may take on higher 
qualities, as a desire to make known a great truth 
calculated to elevate and gladden humanity. Look- 
ing ahead, we see many obstacles in the way. We 
are hampered and held by unfavorable environment. 
We are compelled to keep at the grind of uncongenial 
labor to provide for ourselves and those dependent 
on us. The skies look leaden. Our rational vision 
can see but a small ray of hope. With all this against 
us, how are we to attain ? The very implantation of 
the burning desire is said to be a promise of possible 
gratification, but the mode of attainment lies hidden. 

The Covenant 

In such a strait the first and chief thing to do is 
to arrive at an understanding with the Ego that all 
the energy of our nature shall be put into the effort 
and that we just WILL believe attainment already 
potentially ours. In other words, we enter into a 
compact with ourselves to put forth every exertion to 
secure the prize and to realize as best we can "the 
substance of the things hoped for." 

At this point we cannot see the way, and it is un- 
386 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

wise officiously to make one. The thing left for us 
to do is to lay hold of ideals in detail and exhibit 
them again and again to the mind, stoutly affirming 
our faith in their development. This is to be unfal- 
teringly done day after day until the ideals have been 
realized in expression. After a time, and in good 
time, too, the way will be sure to open more and 
more and most likely directly through immediate en- 
vironment. There should be no looking for ravens 
to feed us, nor for bread from heaven. If the region 
is barren, it is very certain that we have strayed. 
Holding the right thought and doing with might what 
our hands find to do, the rarest opulence embraces us 
at all times. In following such a course an aura is 
created for us well calculated to catch helpful vibra- 
tions. One thus becomes an organ with differentiated 
faculties for seizing upon and utilizing that which 
is fitted to his requirements. Do you understand? 
Until that point is reached, one cannot absorb the 
necessary nutriment from surrounding media. All 
that we need, though it be near us, avails not as long 
as we are not fitted to recognize and utilize it. 

The Process 

But having thus become fitted to functionate, one 

387 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

begins to receive and work over the abundant sup- 
plies which have continually environed him. 

With respect to the environment, it may be said 
that we ought to be positive to* all but Infinite Mind. 
In the silent moments alone should we be negative, 
opening our minds to superior influences and cor- 
dially welcoming whatever comes. It is our moment 
of inspiration and growth. In the arena of active 
life we are to hold ourselves in perfect faith and reso- 
lutely to urge our way onwards. It is thus that we 
establish conditions most favorable for guidance. The 
craft that waveringly hoists and lowers sails, not dar- 
ing to trust the winds, will fail to reach its des- 
tined port. On the other hand, under a conviction 
that the winds, though adverse, are the very source 
of energy, a craft with sails steadily set can be safely, 
surely and expeditiously guided into the desired 
haven, since under such conditions it best responds 
to the helm. 

Eternal wisdom hidden in our mental depths easily 
directs energetic, "going" souls. Time is not to be 
squandered in idle waiting. Those who continually 
tarry for orders do not go far and do not accomplish 
much. With an eye keen to recognize divine signs 

388 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EASE AND SUPREMACY 

and an ear open to catch divine whispers, keep mov- 
ing and you will make a journey not unattended with 
trial and hardship, but one whose close will prove 
most gratifying. 

Attainment 

A' point of importance is that one should merely 
utilize opportunities as they come to him, just as the 
mill wheel uses the water that flows through it, and 
the more faithfully and fully he uses what presents, 
the greater will be the supply. Using to the full the 
little he has, soon the volume of helpful conditions be- 
comes greatly augmented. PEOPLE, AND BOOKS, 
AND ORDERS, AND OFFERS, AND DOLLARS 
WILL PRESENT AT OPPORTUNE MO- 
MENTS TO BROADEN HIS IDEALS, TO MUL- 
TIPLY HIS LABORS AND TO SWELL HIS 
RESOURCES. 

Remember the laws : ( 1 ) Adjustment is requisite 
to make us clear seeing and receptive; (2) we must 
utilize our opportunities to their full measure; (3) 
we must hold the hoped-for thing, through idealism, 
as though in actual possession. 



389 



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